4 the Greater Good: Food For Kids
By:
Updated: September 4, 2012
The Arkansas Rice Depot's Food For Kids program serves some 35-thousand Arkansas students in 600 schools around the state, discreetly providing them food to take home in backpacks.
It's a team effort to unload the van each month as Benton Middle School gets its monthly Food For Kids delivery.
60 students at this school take home bags of food each week, some of them every day.
They include "easy to fix meals, snacks, water," said counselor Fanny Jones. "Some of them don't have running water, so the water bottles are very important to them."
Counselors Jones and Pasley Butler pack and distribute the bags of food to students in need. It started at this school several years ago when they noticed students seemed to lack focus in class.
"We found out a lot of it pertained to the fact that they weren't getting the food they needed at home," said Butler. "Some of the only meals they were having were at school."
Jones said, "They don't perform well in the classroom, because their focus is filling that empty belly."
The result now is better performance in the classroom, fewer discipline problems, and a renewed spirit at this school to help others.
"One day, we really do believe these students will be touched by it and turn around and give back," said Butler.
The Rice Depot provides the food, but it's counselors like Jones and Butler who are the backbone of the program potentially changing a child's life forever.
"It really becomes so much more than just food," said Rice Depot Vice President Lauren McElroy. "It becomes a relationship with someone that truly cares about this child that's in need."
The Rice Depot relies on donations for its Food For Kids program. For more information, visit http://www.ricedepot.org/ffk.asp
It's a team effort to unload the van each month as Benton Middle School gets its monthly Food For Kids delivery.
60 students at this school take home bags of food each week, some of them every day.
They include "easy to fix meals, snacks, water," said counselor Fanny Jones. "Some of them don't have running water, so the water bottles are very important to them."
Counselors Jones and Pasley Butler pack and distribute the bags of food to students in need. It started at this school several years ago when they noticed students seemed to lack focus in class.
"We found out a lot of it pertained to the fact that they weren't getting the food they needed at home," said Butler. "Some of the only meals they were having were at school."
Jones said, "They don't perform well in the classroom, because their focus is filling that empty belly."
The result now is better performance in the classroom, fewer discipline problems, and a renewed spirit at this school to help others.
"One day, we really do believe these students will be touched by it and turn around and give back," said Butler.
The Rice Depot provides the food, but it's counselors like Jones and Butler who are the backbone of the program potentially changing a child's life forever.
"It really becomes so much more than just food," said Rice Depot Vice President Lauren McElroy. "It becomes a relationship with someone that truly cares about this child that's in need."
The Rice Depot relies on donations for its Food For Kids program. For more information, visit http://www.ricedepot.org/ffk.asp
