2020 Emergency Community Support Fund Grant recipient.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began and schools closed, the Children’s Foundation worried about the students who rely on our Food & Friends school nutrition programs. We know that for many students, the meal they received at school was often the only meal they received that day, making the program vital to their overall health and development. We introduced the first phase of emergency food support initiative called Fresh Food for Kids, and at the beginning we supported the Dufferin Food share Program and Shelburne Shepard’s Cupboard Food Bank with food vouchers. Shortly after, we began offering nutritionally balanced food delivered directly to homes of families in need of assistance throughout the summer until schools resumed.
In September, most of the Dufferin school boards have suspended student nutrition programs until future notice. In collaboration with the Orangeville Food Bank, the second phase of our initiative Food & Friends at Home” first deliveries of healthy snack kits will start the week of September 28th, and be delivered on a bi-weekly basis. These kits will provide one snack for each day of a two week period and are similar to what would be provided through a Food & Friends student nutrition program . The kits will continue to be delivered directly to families in need until school based student nutrition programs are able to re-open.
To learn more about Food & Friends at Home https://www.childrensfoundation.org/what-we-do/food-friends/food-friends-at-home
