Did you know that one in four kids within parts of Mast Store’s region don’t have access to adequate nutrition?... Or that $1 can provide as many as ten meals for a family that struggles to feed their children on a daily basis?... Or that this year, through its annual Food for Kids campaign, Mast General Store is donating $15 for every pair of Merrells sold to a food bank in your community to feed children?

All of the above are important points to know as Food for Kids returns to all Mast Store locations next week. You’ll have from October 18 – 31 to find a pair of Merrells and join us in an effort to end child hunger in our backyards.

While we’ve partnered with Merrell on this campaign for several years, it’s now easier than ever to understand the exact difference you’re making when you purchase any pair of Merrell footwear.

We’re giving $15 for every pair of Merrells sold to a partnering local food bank. Although food costs vary across our region, these donations will be restricted specifically to benefit children and youth-focused food programs.

Doing some rough math, if – let’s say – $1 buys six meals at your local food bank, then the Merrell boots you just bought are going to provide 90 meals to children who live in your community. Those would be 90 meals feeding kids your own children go to school with, or who share the playground at the park with your grandkids, or who sit on the pew across the aisle from you in church.

Mast Store has always believed that fulfilling basic human needs, particularly when it comes to food security, are cornerstones of health, safety, and happiness in our communities. When children receive the proper nutrition they learn more readily and pay closer attention in school. They participate in healthier play and more active lifestyles. They grow up as happier individuals who have witnessed first-hand the kindness of their families, friends, and neighbors, and they become adults who will reflect that same kindness in their actions and attitude toward their community.

Merrell shares this belief, and, for more than a decade, has helped us fill backpacks and stock kid cafes through other initiatives aimed at fighting child hunger.

It’s critical, too, that Food for Kids creates partnerships with local food security agencies. These are the organizations that operate on the ground in all of our communities and can identify the most efficient programs to distribute food to children their representatives know personally and serve frequently.

Our local food bank partners for this year’s Food for Kids are:

• Hunger and Health Coalition at the Original Store, Annex, and in Boone
• Harvest Hope at the Columbia Mast Store
• Loaves & Fishes at the Greenville Mast Store
• MANNA FoodBank for the Asheville, Hendersonville, and Waynesville Mast Stores
• Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC at the Winston-Salem Mast Store
• Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee at the Knoxville Mast Store
• Feeding Southwest Virginia at the Roanoke Mast Store

Please, visit these organizations' websites to learn more about their incredible initiatives. We’re thankful for their partnership as they work tirelessly to feed children throughout our region!

We also thank Merrell and – of course – you, too, as we work together to end child hunger at home!

Come see us at the Mast Store location nearest you before the end of October to support Food for Kids. You’ll love your new Merrells, but, most of all, you’ll love the feeling of making your community a healthier, happier place children can truly call home.