Food for Kids is a long-running partnership Mast General Store has had with Merrell. Now, in its 13th year, this may seem like a routine, annual campaign, but your help is anything but mundane. Your involvement truly makes a difference in reaching children who live in our communities.

This year, Food for Kids begins Monday, October 17, and runs through Sunday, October 30. For every pair of Merrells (not only boots, but shoes and sandals, too) purchased in-store and online, Mast Store is donating $15 to youth-focused programs at local food agencies. 

One in four kids within the Mast Store’s four-state region doesn’t have access to adequate nutrition. In addition to making a purchase of Merrell Footwear, guests may also round up their purchases to make a difference. And, every penny makes an impact locally. 

Here's a list of our local partners, the store(s) they’re partnering with, and some brief info about what they do in our community, especially in regard to their kids’ programs:

• Hunger and Health Coalition – High Country (Original, Annex, and Boone): Hunger and Health Coalition serves all of Watauga County. It operates a backpack program through the local school system to provide food-insecure students with meals over weekends and holidays.
• Harvest Hope – Columbia: Harvest Hope is South Carolina’s largest food security agency and serves 22.6 million people in the Midland, Pee Dee, and Upstate regions. Its BackPack programs provide students with meals and nutritious afterschool snacks.
• Loaves & Fishes – Greenville: Loaves & Fishes delivers more than 2.3 million pounds of food annually to Greenville County residents. It serves non-profit childcare centers and students in afterschool and summer programs.
• MANNA FoodBank – Asheville, Hendersonville, and Waynesville: MANNA serves 16 counties in Western North Carolina. Its Feeding Kids Year Round program provides emergency food assistance to public school students throughout the region.
• Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC – Winston-Salem: Second Harvest of Northwest NC serves 18 counties in the Piedmont and Foothills of North Carolina. It provides 42 million meals each year and is a major source of food and support for more than 430 partners, including school-based pantries and weekend backpack programs for children.
• Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee – Knoxville: Second Harvest of East Tennessee serves 18 counties in its region. They operate a Food for Kids program that provides more than 12,600 students with food in addition to hosting a school pantry program that 14 area schools participate in.
• Feeding Southwest Virginia – Roanoke: Feeding Southwest Virginia serves 26 counties in the state. They run a Kids’ Farmers Market program that provides free produce and nutrition education to children in need.

This year’s Food for Kids is a new chance for people to discover local groups that dedicate themselves to fulfilling a basic need in our community – part of the foundation of health, safety, and happiness at home – by making sure children have sufficient, nutritious food to eat while they’re not at school.

When children are fed well and receive proper nutrition, they learn more easily and pay closer attention in school, and they participate in healthier play and more active lifestyles.

Merrell, for more than a decade, has helped our partners fill backpacks, open kid cafes, stock pantries, and maintain other Food for Kids initiatives, and Mast Store appreciates their sustained support.