Friday Food For Kids

According to Bill Westerhof at Belle River Elementary School, students from low income families are coming to school hungry on Monday morning.  During school they receive breakfast and lunch, but many have little or no food on the weekends.

The Friday Food For Kids program, offered in 4 area Elementary Schools- Algonac, Belle River, Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson, provides at-risk students with a backpack full of kid friendly food on Fridays.  Backpacks are returned on Monday and the cycle is repeated.

In addition to feeding a hungry child, the Friday Food program is designed to impact at-risk student’s attendance, reduce behavior issues and increase their attention span.  Kathleen Payton coordinates the weekend food program through the Food Bank of Eastern MI and sees the impact first hand “Children, who do not eat over the weekend, do not do well in school. Nutrition and education go hand in hand”.

The program is entirely dependent upon community support and your help is needed! 

Food is purchased in bulk so it only costs $100 to provide one low income child with food every Friday for an entire school year.  Donations of any size are being accepted. 

Donations may be designated for participating schools:

• Algonac
• Belle River
• Cleveland
• Woodrow Wilson