To continue providing food to school-aged children during the pandemic, the Children’s Foundation will deliver food kits directly to homes starting Sept 29.
Similar to Fresh Food for Kids —a collaboration between local organizations and Market Fresh Guelph during the lockdown that provided nearly 100,000 meals to children in Guelph, Wellington and Dufferin during the pandemic— Food & Friends at Home will help families experiencing food insecurity during challenging times.
“We’ve been working really hard at the foundation to make sure kids are getting what they need,” said Anita Macfarlane, program director at the Children’s Foundation.
“We understand that food insecurity is a real issue in our community. We just want to make sure those kids that definitely need it for sure do receive the nourishment they need to achieve in school. Without that nourishment, they just can’t function properly,” said Macfarlane. “We hope that every kid that needs it is going to get it.”
Food & Friends at Home will deliver 3,000 food kits bi-weekly from September to December.
Each kit includes 10 days worth of food for each child. Each meal includes three food groups, grain, protein and fruit and vegetables. Deliveries will begin Friday.
Families supported by the Children’s Foundation through the Food & Friends at Home program can register for a Food & Friends at Home kit. Only schools/agencies that are part of the Food & Friends program will be able to receive food kits at home.
“We’re so fortunate here in our community of Guelph especially that we have so many emergency food providers, that we’re very fortunate to not have as many people registering because of the other support,” said Macfarlane.
“We’ve been very very fortunate to receive funding from many organizations and individual donors.”
She said the organization has seen immense community involvement.
“We’re trying the best that we can to do the physical distancing with all of our volunteers. They’ve come out to do the packing to pick up the groceries from the grocery store to do the driving to deliver the packages,” said Macfarlane.
“We’ve just been so phenomenally blessed with their support.”
