Can you imagine coming home from school on Friday afternoon and not being able to find a snack in the house? What if mom and dad worked during the weekend and no one was at home to make dinner? What if there was no running water or electricity in your house, and you didn’t eat a full meal for the entire weekend? Now imagine how you might feel Monday morning while the teacher is trying to explain something new. Would you really be able to think about anything but food? Probably not. Unfortunately, this is the way many kids feel in ECISD on Monday mornings. Now we have a better understanding of what teachers have known for a long time….. A hungry child cannot learn.
But how many children are we talking about? At this point we can’t exactly say. We do know that there are 26 elementary schools in ECISD with an approximate enrollment of 15,500 in 2009. Of those, 65% were on the free or reduced lunch. Unfortunately, 17 of the 26 schools report that at last 60% of their student’s quality for free or reduced lunch while 3 schools are at the 80% or greater level. Based on statistics like these and countless heart breaking stories, it has been determined that there is a need for assistance in our community.
The Junior League of Odessa, in association with Education Foundation, West Texas Food Bank and ECISD has created a new program called Food 2 Kids which is modeled after America’s School Harvest Backpack Program. Sacks of food will be sent home on Fridays with children identified as being potentially at high risk for suffering from hunger during the weekend. The sack will contain such things as shelf-stable milk, juice, fruit snacks, canned vegetables, cereal, crackers, pudding/jell-o, protein item & personal hygiene products.
Hundreds of volunteer hours have already been invested to develop the program. West Texas Food Bank has generously allowed us to order and sack food in their warehouse. Next, 2 schools have piloted our program during the 09-10 spring semester (Milam & Burleson). The eventual goal of F2K is to serve all qualifying children in ECISD. More questions? Click here for F2K Frequently Asked Questions.
How can you help? Many volunteers are needed to make this project a success. Click here to volunteer. Monetary donations are always welcome. Funding is our greatest need. Because the food for this program is specially chosen for its nutritional value, weight and child friendly accessibility, the food must be purchased by F2K.
We need more donations to buy enough food to grow the program to the point where it is available to all Odessa area schools. Click here for a donation form and return to: The Junior League of Odessa. 2707 Kermit Hwy, Odessa TX 79764
Thank You
