[FORT LEONARD WOOD, MO] #GivingTuesday and #GivingTuesdayMilitary (11/29/22) was the perfect reason for visiting the Snack In A Pack efforts from Americorps at the Williams Elementary School on Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. Pictured above (from left), Volunteers Evelyn and Brandon are no strangers to helping with local efforts. Joining the crew today were Angie, Mischelle, Brittney, and Rebecca from United Veteran Benefits Agency and United Shield Life Insurance.
Now and every day throughout the year, families are struggling with affording groceries and having access to healthy foods. With rising costs in every aspect of daily living, people with fixed and limited incomes trying to make ends meet often need to seek other resources. Thankfully, there are amazing groups in most communities that are willing to step up and help fill the hunger gap where they can.
At our home office in Missouri, we were able to meet with Americorps member Megon Provart, who helps coordinate the Snack In A Pack efforts on Fort Leonard Wood. Megon said that every week volunteers are packing and giving out 676 bags of after school snacks that include ramen, fruit, tuna, granola bars and more. This program serves pre-kindergarten through high school children throughout the Waynesville School District who have enrolled via a form provided at school. Megon reports that this number is up substantially from the normal 270-330 bags that had been distributed prior to this school year.
Currently the local Snack In A Pack
is in need of monetary and food donations as well as volunteers.
Their primary needs right now are tuna, ramen, and "entrees".
They report to have approximately 2 weeks of meat available at the moment. If you would like to help, please contact the Community Resource Center at 573-842-2250.
Volunteered man-hours, donated food products, and monetary contributions go a long way to help fight hunger in our towns, cities, states and country. A great idea to help, businesses can have "Food Fights" to see who can score the largest collection of food for donation. Individuals can ask your friends and family members to bring an extra can of food with them to the holiday party this year that you can then donate to your local food bank. Giving Tuesday and Giving Tuesday Military may have been the perfect reason to pitch in, but hungry neighbors are here year-round and will hugely benefit from any efforts given by each and every one of us.