DELHI TOWNSHIP, Ohio — A plan to make sure no kid goes hungry is moving closer to its goal in the Oak Hills School District.
For the past year the Kids & Community Food Collaborative has partnered with west side businesses to raise money and expand what was once a program at just Delshire Elementary to every elementary and middle school in the district.
"We approximate (the need) to be about 400 students, which would require us to about 100,000 a year," said Travis Curd, president and founder of the Kids & Community Food Collaborative. "We have started a campaign with local businesses and small business owners to raise $1,000 per business per year for 10 years. That would give us $100,000 a year, $1 million over 10 years, and will enable us to utilize the Freestore Foodbank resources to provide power packs and school pantries to those families."
The group is at about 40% of its goal but already they're seeing results for their efforts.
Thursday, the district unveiled two new food pantries at Bridgetown and Delhi Middle Schools.
"To take one thing financially off their plate, maybe one grocery trip for the month, that seemed like a fantastic idea," said Teri Egbers, school counselor at Bridgetown Middle School.
Stocked inside the pantry are kid-friendly, nutritious, shelf-stable items.
"The basics we kind of forget that not everyone has," and Egbers said as the first families shopped. "We try to get to know our kids and families well so we make this a comfortable experience. Really, want them to feel like they are the ones doing a good job by doing this for their families and to see them, they may have been nervous coming in, but I hope they left more comfortable and feeling like they could take care of their families better."
At Delshire Elementary, Egbers' counterpart Katie Klus detailed the power packs' impact for her students since 2018.
"They were missing a lot of educational time, not only from leaving class to ask for snacks, but because they're hungry," she said. "And we all know, we don't work well, when we're hungry. The students are in class longer on Mondays … they come in class, they're ready to learn. They've eaten the food over the weekend. And I think it also takes away the stress."
The expansion was necessary as the collaborative saw a need within Oak Hills, but the Freestore Foodbank also said that need is climbing everywhere.
Heidi Becker runs the power pack program. She said,
"This is the first school year that I've had, probably over eight schools and eight school districts reach out because they want to be a part of it," said Heidi Becker, who runs the power pack program for Freestore Foodbank. "Some of these students, they're home alone on the weekend and this food is kind of that security blanket for them."
As they move forward with fundraising to sustain this initiative, Curd said the money pledged from businesses as well as the Freestore Foodbank's new facility in Riverside the collaborative is really solidifying that relationship.
In the last five years, the Kids & Community Food Collaborative said it has provided over 15,000 meals through the donations it has received.
