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Serving Robbinsdale Area Schools- Meadow Lake and
Forest Elementary Schools.
January 28, 2014: The City of New Hope gave the Kid
Pack assemblers a Good Citizen Award.
View it here!
Community Partners Working
to fight childhood weekend hunger
Weekend snacks are sometimes hard to come by for many young
people in Robbinsdale Area Schools communities. For many children in poverty, a
school breakfast or lunch are their only nutritional meal of the day. During the
weekend, many young people are faced with either non-nutritious food or simply
go hungry. Church and community partners are banding
together to help end childhood weekend hunger, support healthy growth and
development and school success. In answer to this
need, Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church in Plymouth paved the path to
community-wide engagement by partnering with PRISM food shelf, General Mills and
Zachary Lane Elementary. Volunteers help pack over 60 weekend snack packs each
week for students in poverty at Zachary Lane. Now your
help is needed.
Weekend Kid Packs Expanding
to Meadow Lake Elementary and Forest Elementary
With the guidance of lessons learned from Beautiful Savior
and Zachary Lane, Bonfire Ministry is seeking your support to expand the focus
on ending weekend childhood hunger for children attending Meadow Lake (New Hope)
and Forest Elementary (Crystal) schools.
Free and Reduced Lunch
Counts Significant at Meadow Lake and Forest
Due to the high percentage of children on free and reduced
lunch at both Meadow Lake and Forest, Bonfire Ministry will be focusing on a
school-wide initiative to fight weekend hunger, improve nutrition and exercise
and lower childhood obesity. Over 1300 weekend kid packs are needed to serve
Meadow Lake and Forest students. Additional community partners will ensure
successful outcomes!
Hunger Facts
One in five area households with children are food insecure.
Children in those households simply do not get enough to eat- they had to cut
the size of their meals, skip meals, or even go whole days without food at some
point during the school year.
In Minnesota, 14% of children live in poverty. Over 40% of
the people served at food shelves are children.
Hungry children face unnecessary barriers as they strive to
become healthy, product, and engaged members of society.
Hunger contributes to poor academic performance and
disruptive behavior in the classroom. Missed meals also increase tardiness and
visits to the school nurse.
Packing Days
Packing Days for weekend
snacks for our hungry kids in the neighborhood is held the
fourth Tuesday, 4-6 p.m. We pack at Emergency Food Network (just east of
Boone on 54th). Volunteers are needed. If
you would like to help, please contact Melodie Hanson,
Redesign, 763-504-498
2013-2014 packing days:
August 27
September 24
October 29
November 26
December 17
January 28
February 25
March 25
April 29
May 27 (Kidpack gives back to EFN)
Want to Help But Can't
Volunteer?
You can contribute financially to the Kid Pack program. Any
amount will help address weekend hunger. Want some ideas? Weekend snack packs
cost approximately $2 each. A donation of $72 basically adopts a child for the
school year. A donation of $1,584 will basically provide weekend snacks for a
classroom of 25 during the school year. Give to the United Way at your
workplace? You can designate your pledge to the kid pack program by writing in
Bonfire Ministry--KidPack (and school designee) under the Community
Shares non-profit 501(c)3 section of your pledge form.
Contact
Bonfire Ministry
7708 62nd Ave N
Brooklyn Park, MN 55428
www.bonfireministry.org
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