Food For Kids 2011

 

What if you had to wait two days to eat?


 

Mast General Store, Merrell Footwear, and the Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee are partnering to provide children in the Knoxville 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.

The facts are overwhelming. Nearly one out of every five people in East Tennessee lives in poverty and has difficulty meeting basic needs. Among children in our community, one in four is at-risk of going hungry today.  In our East Tennessee community an astounding 200,000 people are at-risk of hunger. Roughly 40% of the food distributed by Second Harvest feeds a hungry child.

Food for Kids is a collaborative effort between Second Harvest and an ever-increasing number of public schools within the food bank’s 18-county service area. The program is designed to provide healthy, easily-prepared food to some of the most vulnerable children in our community, children who may be missing meals on a regular basis.

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 Food for Kids participants are common.

Will you please join Second Harvest’s 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 Knoxville. Thank you.