More than 16 million children under the age of 18 are food insecure in this country. That means that their families lack the funds to adequately supply their growing bodies with nutritious foods on a daily basis, thus resulting in poor nutrition and an unprotected immune system. Of that 16 million, 3 million are under the age of five years old.
In researching this project, I discovered that my local food pantry served more than 17,000 people according to their annual report. These families {who look much like our own families} were provided with a nutritious one week supply of food thanks to the donations of people and businesses in our community.
We are blessed in our family to have the resources to buy food whenever we need it. Champions for Kids works to mobilize millions of people by providing training & resources to improve the lives of children in our communities. Their simple service project ideas have inspired our family to host a food drive and YOU can help, too.
If you’d like to participate from afar, you can download a project card and host a food drive in your own community. If you’re local, I encourage you to participate in Ellie’s Food Drive! We’ll be collecting your food donations to deliver to our local Loaves & Fishes Pantry at the Ada Jenkins Center. We’ll be sending out emails & posting to Facebook with more details of our pick up schedule.
Here’s a printable list of food that our local pantries can use: Ellie’s Food Drive
- Cereal
- Nutrition Bars {like Zone Perfect}
- Oatmeal or Grits
- Pediasure
- Pediasure Sidekicks
- “One Box” Meals
- Canned Meat (chicken, tuna, Spam, etc.)
- Canned fruit
- Canned Vegetables
- Juice (4-6 oz. Or concentrate)
- Pasta
- Pasta Sauce
- Mayonnaise
- Ketchup
- Mustard
- Jell-O
- Pudding
- Peanut Butter
- Jelly or Jam
- Cookies
- Cake mix and icing
- Spaghetti-O’s
- Bar soap
- Laundry detergent-small
- Toothpaste and toothbrushes
- Toilet paper
- Diapers and wipes
- Baby food
- Pet food
Let’s give all kids a chance for a healthy start in life & feed families in our own community.
Disclosure: This post has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. All opinions are my own & the desire to participate in a local food drive were decided upon in a family meeting. #AbbottCFK #CBias
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Thanks for the support! Don’t forget to stop by and check us out on Facebook at http://facebook.com/zoneperfect ~Brittany @ZonePerfect
That’s a great list to work with when trying to figure out what foods to purchase! Thanks for this great call to action! All kids deserve to have access to healthy foods.