With a $5000 District Matching Grant, SEMR is implementing and supporting food pantries at Voyager Middle School and Olivia Park Elementary School. Due to the pandemic, both pantries will only consist of food items but in the future toiletries and clothing will be added at Voyager. We also are picking up fresh vegetables from Farmer Frog for the schools to distribute to the families.
At this time food is distributed weekly in paper bags to the families who pick up the bags from the school. When school is back in session and deemed safe, food will be loaded in backpacks and sent home with students on Fridays, and the empty backpack returned on Monday.
The goal of the project is to not only fund the pantries but to have an ongoing service project for our club members. We will be ordering supplies, shopping, helping to set up the pantry at Voyager, and assist in filling backpacks (or grocery bags during COVID-19). At this time we are only able to shop for the food and pick up from Farmer Frog. We are also going to solicit manufacturers for donations of food items and do a social media campaign for donations to support the program.
The schools we have selected have a high percentage of free or reduced lunch students and many of the families in this category is struggling. Our food pantries will help meet a great need in the schools.
Our hope is to help the pantries become self-sustaining by working with corporations and community members to support the project in the future. It is estimated that each pantry costs $5000 per year to operate.
If you'd like to volunteer for this project please contact Sean Straub or Sheila Countryman-Bean.
Interested in making a financial contribution to this program? Please visit rotaryfeedsfamilies.org.