KM Food For Friends continues to help local children

A few years ago, a group of church members from United Methodist Church, in Dodge Center got together and talked about how they could help children in the school district who struggle with access to healthy foods.
They were talking about how kids who are on free and reduced lunch don’t have opportunities to get these services during the summer or weekends and they brainstormed on how they could help with this.
After being able to find monetary donations from church members, the church and from other private donations they were able to provide weekend meals to five K-M students on the weekends.
A year later and the group was approached by Food For Friends about them taking over the program, something that was their ultimate goal.
“We were excited to see local interest from the community,” said Laura Peck, one of the founders of the program in Dodge Center, and a teacher at KM.
Since then. the program known as Food For Friends has become an absolute success story collecting and donating over 30,000 pounds of food to kids in need in the KM district.
“We started off small,” said KM Middle School Social Worker Lindsey Campbell who helped started the program.
After receiving a partner in St. John’s Lutheran Church who agreed to store the food items and allow for a space for the bags to be packed along with receiving grants and matching funds they then knew that they make the program even bigger, to help more children and families.
The way the program works is every year at the Elementary School notices are sent home to students at the beginning of the school year explaining the program.
From there families can sign up their kid(s) for the program.
The way it works is each Wednesday night a group of volunteers meet at the St. John’s Lutheran Church in Kasson to pack 110 backpacks with nutritious foods for weekend meals and snacks.
On Fridays the backpacks are put inside the students regular backpacks so they can’t be recognized which includes enough healthy foods for the child on the weekend.
As of recently they have also included vouchers to Kwik Trip which allows a family to get any combination of two things, eggs, milk or bread.
“These things can go along way,” Lee explained.
Since the program has began they have also expanded to helping out students at the middle school and high school level.
Instead of giving out backpacks at both schools there are mini food shelves stocked with different healthy foods and snacks along with some personal hygiene items that students may need.
While these initiatives by the organization may be impressive it doesn’t just stop there.
One of the things that the organization has done since it’s started is also provide “healthy snack cart scholarships,” to students in the Elementary School  who are apart of the weekend program normally.
The snack cart is a bin of healthy snacks that students can pick from as an added security for parents to make sure their children can get a healthy snack during the day that they will enjoy.
The program which costs $70 per year for child Is covered for the students with those scholarships,another added way to ensure children in the district have access to healthy snacks especially for those whose families struggle financially.
The ultimate goal of the program is to help provide meals to children on the weekends who may get free or reduced lunch during the week and on weekends have trouble with access to nutritious foods for a number of different reasons.
This is often known as being food insecure.
 
Facts about Food Insecurity
 
While many people may not know what food insecurity is or may think it’s only something that takes place in very poor communities the fact of the matter is that food insecurity affects every community across the country.
 
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines food insecurity as a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life.
 
According to the Feeding America website about seven percent and over 1300 people in Dodge County are faced with being food insecure.
 
One of the biggest factors when it comes to why people face food insecurity is because of financial constraints paired with the high cost of food.
 
For example according to Feeding America the average cost to make a meal in Dodge County is $3.17, meaning that an extra $726,000 is needed to meet food needs, that are not currently being met in the county.
 
With the help of the program families in the community are able to supplement their food budgets which is a crucial way to help stretch their food budgets each month.
 
In a testimonial about the program one parent explained that the program is very beneficial to their family and helps with their financial situation while providing meals for their children.
“Very beneficial. Funds are tight. Helped make costs.”While these numbers may be less than neighboring counties of Steele and Olmstead which are both at nine percent  the reality is that programs like the one at K-M is crucial for many families in the community.
 
Community support
 
Before the program even began there has been a tremendous amount of community interest in wanting to see the program succeed.
Since it’s started the support that has been received by members of the community has been nothing short of amazing.
“I am continually amazed by the support of our community,” said Lee.
Some of the ways that organizations and businesses help support the program is through having different fundraisers throughout the year to help support the program.
“We rarely have to ask for help,” Lee said, “people are aware of the program and donate money from the goodness of their hearts,” she added.
The other aspect of community support for the program comes from people in the community helping with packing the bags every week.
 
Angie Richards, one of the people who spearheads the program said that the generosity of the community with their time and money is inspiring. "I am inspired by the generosity of the community to support Food For Friends through financial contributions, in-kind donations of food and the time of the volunteers who make this program possible."
 
Effects on kids and families
 
One of the most important things that the program does is gives students a better opportunity to do well in school.
Because it has been proven time after time that children who are hungry and aren’t able to get healthy foods in their bodies are at higher risk to act up, have difficulty paying attention, and not doing as well as they can in school the program is extremely important.
“We know the effects that eating healthy has on kids,” Campbell said, “being hungry makes it difficult for kids to concentrate and do well in school,” she added.
Parents whose children receive the benefits of the Food For Friends Program are also very grateful for the program and see the positive effects of it.
The following are anonymous testimonials from parents of children who have benefited from Food For Friends over the years.
“This program has been so beneficial to our family! It's great and we want to thank you so much for all you do. The extras our children bring home always fills the gap of needing to run to the store and saves us money!”
“It has showed my child healthy food can be good and that there are ways of getting help.”“It helps out a lot. We love it. It’s like opening up Christmas presents. The kids get excited. Just keep doing what you are doing.”
 
The Food For Friends Program hopes to be able to continue with their vision which is “envision a community in which all students and families have access to sufficient, nutritious food.”
For the cost of $108 you can sponsor a child for a whole school year including long weekends and school breaks.
For more information contact the Food For Friends Program at KMFoodForFriends@gmail.com.