Did you know that about 5,000 children in Sheboygan County are living with hunger? With continued inflation, rising food prices and decreasing support from the government, more children will be at risk to experience hunger on the weekends.
Our Food for Thought for Kids program in partnership with 24 local schools is dedicated to supporting children facing hunger. We work with teachers, counselors, principals, and volunteers to make sure children who don’t have enough food to eat on the weekends get a bag filled with 10 nutritious items, including fresh fruit and other easy-to-eat food, at the end of each school week. Making sure children have food when they don’t have access to school meals is critical. Food for Thought for Kids fills the gap between the federally-funded school breakfast and lunch programs and FoodShare (also known as Food Stamps or SNAP), allowing children in our community to grow and thrive.
16 years ago, Sheboygan County resident and mother, Anjenette Pond, had a conversation with a teacher at a local school that shocked her. Anjenette learned that there were hungry kids in the teacher’s class and quickly volunteered to take action. For years, she and her family provided food each week to the handful of kids in need so they could bring the food home in their backpacks to eat on the weekends.
Fast forward to a decade later, Anjenette met with Sheboygan County Food Bank to see if her work could be formalized into a program to help more kids. Ironically, Nourish, another local non-profit, had recently approached us to take over their Good Food Club. (The Good Food Club was a small program designed to provide weekend food to about a dozen Longfellow Elementary School students in need.) As we were growing our operations and staff, it seemed that the stars were aligning. In 2018, we officially kicked off Food for Thought for Kids to support kids in our community.
Anjenette is now one of our co-lead volunteers for Food for Thought for Kids. She connects and oversees students from Sheboygan North High School’s DELTA Club to volunteer for the program. A true win-win, these students-helping-students become aware of hunger in our community and learn the importance of service, leadership, and teamwork.
“Sheboygan County Food Bank helped me extend this family mission to a community mission,” said Anjenette Pond, Food for Thought for Kids co-lead volunteer.
Anjenette Pond with Sheboygan North High School DELTA students. DELTA students are key volunteers who help assemble food into bags and deliver food to schools.
How You Can Help
Today, we’re launching our crowdfunding campaign, Fund Food for Thought, to make sure kids are fed on the weekends during the 2023-2024 school year. Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or program by raising money from a large number of people, online, and often with social media.
We’re counting on individuals, companies, and organizations to help donate and spread the word on social media. Our first goal is to raise $30,000 to feed 150 children for the 2023-2024 school year. When we reach $30,000, we’ll unlock our next goal that will bring us closer to our final goal of supporting 450 children for the upcoming school year.
Our campaign website page is the hub for donating and following updates on the goal progress, top supporters and recent donations. When you give, you can choose from different donation levels (various levels from $5 – $1,000 or any other amount) that describe exactly how the donation will make a difference for a child(ren). For just $25, you can feed five children for one weekend, and for $200, you can support one child for the entire school year.
- $5 = feed ONE CHILD for ONE WEEKEND
- $10 = feed TWO CHILDREN for ONE WEEKEND
- $25 = feed FIVE CHILDREN for ONE WEEKEND
- $50 = feed ONE CHILD for ONE QUARTER
- $100 = feed ONE CHILD for ONE SEMESTER
- $200 = feed ONE CHILD for ENTIRE school year
- $1,000 = feed FIVE CHILDREN for ENTIRE school year
If you aren’t able to donate, you can still help by spreading the word on social media! Check out our #FundFoodForThought social media toolkit.
“With our community’s help, we can help build a strong and hopeful future for our children, who need our kindness, love and compassion. Please consider donating to Fund Food for Thought to make sure no child in Sheboygan County suffers from hunger,” said Patrick Boyle, Executive Director, Sheboygan County Food Bank.
