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With college quickly out of session for the summer season, many Palm Seaside County college students received’t have entry to the free and decreased lunches they depend on. The Palm Seaside County Meals Financial institution (PBCFB) predicts that extra youngsters and households will want meals help over the summer season because of rising fuel costs, file inflation and lease will increase. To offset the anticipated want, long-time accomplice Lois Pope and her LIFE Basis just lately donated $450,000 in proceeds from this yr’s ‘Woman in Purple’ gala to help Pope’s namesake program. By means of the donation, it’s estimated that 437,837 meals can be offered to college students on summer season break by way of the Lois’ Food4Kids program.
“No youngster ought to ever go hungry, particularly proper right here in our personal yard,” Pope says. “So whereas we have now a small dent in the issue, there’s a lot extra to be completed and notably given the present financial circumstances. I’m dedicated to working with the Palm Seaside County Meals Financial institution, and particularly the Lois’ Food4Kids program till we eradicate youngster starvation within the county.”
The Lois’ Food4Kids program is a year-round weekend and summer season feeding initiative designed to assist fill dietary gaps youngsters face when not at school. This system was created when the COVID pandemic started in 2020 and Pope determined to donate $1 million to PBCFB. This system focuses on colleges, camps, libraries and native Boys and Ladies Golf equipment. College students are given a bag filled with nutritious, easy-to-prepare meals to take dwelling on weekends and through summer season and spring breaks when they don’t have entry to free and decreased lunches at college. Kids are additionally given a household meal as a result of it’s assumed that if a toddler is hungry, the household is hungry too.
“Final yr, we distributed greater than 131,000 meals by way of our 22 childhood starvation initiative accomplice companies all through Palm Seaside County,” Jamie Kendall says, CEO of the PBCFB. “If that quantity astounds you, our distributed meals are projected to extend by at the very least two p.c this yr. Whereas many households are making summer season trip plans, many extra are dreading this time of yr as they’ve decreased entry to meals help by way of the varsity system. This donation couldn’t come at a extra essential time, and we’re so grateful for Lois and the LIFE Basis’s beneficiant lifeline for youths and their households this summer season.”
The PBCFB procures meals from grocery shops, farmers, meals distributors, wholesalers and different sources and supplies it to virtually 200 local people companions, together with meals pantries, soup kitchens and residential housing applications. Accomplice companies distribute the merchandise acquired, together with culturally applicable meals and requirements like paper towels and diapers, to make sure households have entry to meals when wanted most.
For extra details about Lois’ Food4Kids program, please go to pbcfoodbank.org/applications or e-mail [email protected].
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