Our first round of our new Community Food Kit program served 9300 families in a 14-week time span. With the continuing pandemic, many families in our area need on-going assistance.
We launched a second round of Community Food Kits in September. Seven Northland school districts are participating and our distribution sites are now on school properties. Included is a nice photo overview of how we pack and distribute 700 kits each week. To date, over 6,000 families have picked up or received this 14-lb bag of shelf-stable food with a fresh loaf of bread. NEW this time, is a lovely 12 lb produce box.
We receive heartfelt gratitude from our families. One woman is a server who lost her job and was very uncertain how she would continue to feed her family. She was thrilled to pick up a kit and produce box from one of our larger school district sites and told us "I didn' t know what I was going to do, then our school social worker sent the info about your program. You are amazing, thank you". Another family receiving these kits via delivery is a recently widowed Mom with four kids. She homeschools the kids during the pandemic due to health issues for several of her children. Her husband's death was unexpected and she is having difficulty dealing with so many things at once. Food and produce arriving each week to her door has helped her tremendously.
Our hope is to continue this program through the end of the current school year, totalling over 20,000 kits. For more information and additional photo's visit our website and facebook page.
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Feed Northland Kids was able to create a Community Food Kit program in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, thanks to generous support from many donors, including those giving through this portal! We served 9,304 families over a 14-week timespan with this kit of 18 to 20 grocery items topped by a loaf of fresh baked bread. We essentially pivoted to take our ten in-school pantries mobile. By working with great community partners we were able to set up four distribution sites and attract the many volunteers needed to pack and distribute the kits. Each week families identified by counselors in seven school districts, dropped by to pick up their kit. For those unable to get to us, a delivery component was added.
Our plan is to continue to feed hungry children in the Northland of Kansas City in any way possible. At the elementary level, we partner with our regional food bank to send home a weekend BackSnack. This serves 2,000 children in 57 separate elementary schools. On our own, we opened ten "food for thought" pantries inside middle and high schools. We will continue to open additional pantries each year. If school does not resume in person or a mix of virtual/in person, we may reactivate this kit for those students who are unable to visit the pantries. The elementary program will continue unabated, regardless of in-school or virtual attendance, even if we need to deliver those BackSnacks.
Thank you for your support to help us meet this ever-growing need in the midst of the pandemic. For more information on our efforts and other ways you might engage with our mission, please visit https://www.feednorthlandkids.org.
Thank you for helping us "feed our future"!!
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