In August of 2017, the Food Drive Kids provided the materials and volunteers and worked with The Interfaith Food Shuttle to build a garden at Fuller Elementary School in Raleigh, NC. Many of the students there live in an aread with limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Student clubs and classes will work together to grow produce that will help these kids have fresh produce on the weekends when they cannot rely on being fed at school. This is an example of working with the community to build sustainable hunger relief provided by kids for kids.
Growing Together
In order to begin working towards ways to help provide sustainable hunger relief. The Food Drive Kids partnered with The Interfaith Food Shuttle and their Head of Urban Agriculture to put into place a garden that would allow students to provide food for their peers. They raised over $2,000 and rounded up a couple dozen volunteers and build a garden a Ligon Middle School in Raleigh, NC. The goal of this garden was to provide a school with a student population consisting of many kids that do not have access to fresh fruits and vegetables on a regular basis. The garden would be run, managed, and maintained by classes at the school, and the produce would be shared with students in the neighborhood that were at risk of hunger through their Backpack Buddies Program.
Never Give Up
2016 was the food drive that we went in with high hopes from a successful year with $11,000 and 10,000lbs. from 2015. we even made a kit for other kids and adults who wanted to start their own food drive. We had 10 stores that we worked with. We had a goal of $10,000 and 10,000 lbs. of food. we were disappointed that we did not raise as much as we did last year. We did not get discouraged and we kept going to 2017.
Bigger is Better
In 2015,William (9) with the help of his brother Alexander (5) decided it was time to ramp things up and expand to 10 stores. With over 150 volunteers the Food Drive Kids put together a plan to have kids and their parents stand outside of those 10 grocery stores for one day in April and ask people to buy food from their list and donate it on their way out. They received a grand from the National Peanut Board and Youth Service America to get things rolling, and with the donation of a 24 foot Penske truck they collected 9,000 pounds of food and donated $11,000 to the Interfaith Food Shuttle’s Backpack buddies program.
The Next Step
After my succuss I decided to try it again. That year was the year when I wanted to expand to more than 1 store, so we had 4 participating stores and 60 volunteers help us. During that food drive we colected 4,000 pounds of food and $7,000 to help the Interfaith Food Shuttle’s BackPack Buddies program. That was the next sparck to start the fire. It was then that I realized that I could really inspire people to help others and really make a difference, and it may be possible to end childhood hunger.
-William Winslow, Founder