Food for Kids is a Merrill-based program through Saint Stephen’s UCC Church that serves 7 schools in the city.
However, they’re facing a big funding shortfall.
Food insecurity is a big problem in Wisconsin, where the average rate of food insecurity was 9.6% from 2020 to 2022.
While students can qualify for free and reduced price lunches in school, they might go home to empty cupboards on the weekend, which is where the Food for Kids program steps in.
Saint Stephen’s UCC Church in Merrill started a program called Food for Kids that currently services 218 children across 7 area schools, with more families joining each week.
They’re hosting a fundraiser banquet on November 2nd in Merrill to help raise money for the program.
During the winter months, when heating bills increase, the program tends to see a rise in families struggling to pay for food.
They also saw more families struggling after COVID relief funds dried up.
Terra Holdridge, Administrative Director at Saint Stephen’s UCC Church, says that every dollar donated goes directly to food for the children.
Volunteers pack bags with 14 different items, including servings of breakfast and microwavable lunches, to help carry kids through the weekend.
“I also hear, obviously, it's anonymous, so I don't hear names or anything like that, but from the school social workers about how much program is helpful to children who do go home to those struggling households, and the fact that we are able to provide them with weekend meals brings them back in on Monday, ready to learn, versus hungry and anxious,” said Holdridge.
They’re at a $13,000 budget deficit for the year right now, and that’s why their “Love Your Neighbor” banquet is so important.
Last year’s banquet raised $10,000- approximately two months worth of food.
Holdridge says programs like theirs don’t solve the true problem behind why these children are experiencing food insecurity in the first place, but it is a big help.
She thinks if more communities implemented a program like theirs, they would see children benefitting and being more productive with food in their bellies.
Mike Southcombe is the Senior Pastor at Saint Stephen’s UCC Church.
He said that he met a teacher at the church who grew teary-eyed when she found out he was involved in the Food for Kids program.
“She said, I have kids in my class that the first few weeks before their parents got them signed up, they just it was Tuesday or Wednesday before I got them calmed down and ready to learn, she said, and now they show up Monday, and they've been fed and even tell me, you know, you know, ‘Mrs. so-and-so, they, they had, we had, we had granola in our bag this week, and I had, I hadn't had granola before, but I tried it, and it was good,’” said Southcombe.
The program has grown- in the 2016 to 2017 school year, there were 130 children signed up, now there are 218.
A few years ago, they were struggling with finding volunteers and funding, but the community really stepped up in the last two years to help support their work.
That said funding continues to be their biggest struggle, so they really hope the community shows up for their upcoming banquet.
