Kids who come to school hungry may be angry or irritable, and they may have trouble concentrating, says Dickinson Elementary School Principal Nan Evans. "You might think that a student is ADHD when they're just hungry,” she says.
Enter the
Cintas Corporation in West Michigan, which has teamed up with
Feeding America West Michigan Food Bank to sponsor a Mobile Food Pantry program at Dickinson Elementary School, 448 Dickinson St. SE, in Grand Rapids.
Dickinson's first Mobile Food Pantry on Thursday, April 25 was a huge success. Subsequent distributions will be held on the fourth Thursday of each month through January 2014 and will provide fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and baked goods to students and their families in the Dickinson neighborhood. Each of Cintas' 5,000-pound, farmers market-style distributions will provide 100 households with enough food to supplement their meals for three to four days.
According to Evans, that food is desperately needed. More than three quarters of the students at Dickinson Elementary are enrolled in free or reduced-price meal programs.
Evans has witnessed firsthand the desperation food insecurity can bring. "I have parents that hover over their children to make sure that they get every morsel of food that we offer," she says. "Kids will hoard food in their locker … (because) they're saving it for family members."
She also recalls a time when the school cook found an expectant mother drinking leftover milk in the cafeteria.
Feeding America West Michigan reclaims edible surplus food from farmers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. It stores, processes, and distributes that food through 1,250 local food pantries and other hunger relief agencies in 40 West Michigan counties. More than 100,000 West Michigan families rely on food from the organization.
The Mobile Pantry is the first of its kind organized specifically for students and their families. For Cintas, it's a chance to deepen their investment in the Grand Rapids community.
Headquartered in Cincinnati, Cintas Corporation designs, manufactures, and implements corporate identity uniform programs, and provides entrance mats, restroom cleaning and supplies, and other services for more than one million businesses.
Get involved:
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Give money.
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Give time.
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Give food.
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Host a mobile pantry.
Source: Linda Vanderbaan, Feeding America West Michigan Food Bank
Writer: Victoria Mullen, Do Good Editor
Images: Courtesy of Feeding America West Michigan
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