Food For Students

Goal: $25,000.00

Specific Need

Financial Donations and volunteers help to fill bags.

Mission

Food for students is a cooperative, community initiative aimed at feeding some of the hungriest children in Emporia, Kansas.

Profile

Food for Students is a cooperative, community initiative aimed at feeding some of the hungriest children in Emporia, Kansas.

Food for Students is a volunteer-based initiative and 100 percent of the funds raised goes toward purchasing non-perishable food to fill weekend to-go bags that are given to children who come from food-insecure households.

In 2010, it came to our attention that a few of the children in our public schools, though they receive free breakfast and lunch during the week, go home to limited or no food over the weekend or holiday breaks. And as we all know, children who are hungry cannot learn or focus on schoolwork like children who are well-nourished. So we have felt compelled to partner with the schools by providing bags of food to go home with these children on Friday afternoons.

Since December 2010 our group of concerned community members has been meeting with the school support specialists and principals to formulate a plan for meeting this critical need. And in February 2011 we launched the program community-wide, asking the Emporia community to help provide food, volunteer hours and financial support in order to meet this monthly need.

Currently, there is a need to provide more than 300 bags a month during the school year to Emporia’s PreK--12th grade students. We have worked diligently to fill the bags with lightweight, healthy, nonperishable food and at the same time keep the cost per bag low. On average, each bag costs about $14.

Each year the need for these weekend food bags has escalated in Emporia. Lyon County is ranked as one of the highest in the state of Kansas, so we anticipate that the need won’t be going away anytime soon.

What has made FFS unique is how it is operated. It functions exclusively on community volunteer help and financial support. One hundred percent of donations given to FFS are used to purchase the food to fill the to-go bags. A program such as this, with no paid staff, can be challenging to maintain year after year.

The need is great. And the stakes are high. We hope you will join us in this effort to meet the needs of these hungry children in our community.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at 342-4800. We look forward to hearing from you soon.