Food for Kids 2011



What if you had to wait two days to eat?


 

Mast General Store, Merrell Footwear, and the Loaves & Fishes are partnering to provide children in the Greenville area with weekend food, and you can help.  For each pair of Merrell shoes purchased at Mast Store October 1st through 16th, Merrell will fill a pack with food to feed a child for a weekend.

Loaves & Fishes works to provide a solution to hunger and waste in our community.  Their method is simple: rescue perishable and prepared food and deliver to organizations that feed the hungry. In 2010, they rescued and delivered more than 1,000,000 meals worth of food to more than 100 emergency food pantries, soup kitchens, and other human services organizations in Greenville County.

Loaves & Fishes is committed to addressing the needs of Greenville’s children at greatest risk of hunger by creating Mission Backpack.  Loaves & Fishes recruits Mission Backpack sponsors, who commit to supporting one school for the entire school year. The program sponsors supply food, pack the backpacks, and deliver the packs to their sponsor school each week.

For Mission Backpack, the strategy is simple. Principals ask their teachers to compile a list of kids in their classrooms whom they feel are at risk of hunger. In addition to simply telling their teachers they are going hungry, many participating kids are observed hoarding food from the lunchroom, taking food from other children’s trays, and even taking food from trashcans in order to have something to eat after school and over the weekend. These children are discreetly given a backpack full of food for themselves (and any siblings they may have at home) every Friday throughout the school year. Students return the backpacks the following week to be refilled. Reports of improved self-esteem, behavior, and concentration among Mission Backpack participants are common. Eighty children selected by the school staff are receiving weekend food.

Will you please join Loaves & Fishes’ mission by stopping by Mast General Store and outfitting yourself with a pair of Merrell shoes? You can walk proud knowing each step you take in your new Merrell shoes is one step closer to preventing childhood hunger in Greenville. Thank you.