The need is now. The numbers are dire.
Kids' Food Basket, a Grand Rapids nonprofit that provides a daily sack supper for elementary students who would go hungry without it, has been nearly overwhelmed with requests from area schools who say kids are stuffing their pockets with cafeteria food so they'll have something to eat when they get home.
The desire to respond to those requests prompted the organization to move from its 3,500-square-foot space near
John Ball Park to a new 10,000-square-foot warehouse/office at 2055 Oak Industrial Dr., Grand Rapids.
"We definitely have an opportunity to grow here, and we need to grow and expand our services," says Executive Director Bridget Clark Whitney. "We are currently providing 3,140 sack suppers each weekday. Each of our schools has 80 percent or higher of its students below the poverty level, and those are the kids we're helping."
Six days a week, over 100 volunteers, including children and teens, pack the sack suppers with foods from each of the five food groups. Each supper always includes fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, a meat/cheese sandwich and a 100-percent fruit juice box, Whitney says.
"The kids that we serve receive breakfast and lunch through school lunch programs, where they're getting about 1,000 calories a day," Whitney says. "Kids under 12 need 2,000 calories for their brains to develop, so our suppers are always between 800 and 1,000 calories.
"With the job losses and the economy there's been a high spike in poverty," she adds. "A
Brookings Institute study revealed that between 2000 and 2008 Grand Rapids had the highest spike in poverty in general of any city in the country."
An October 16 public open house will feature tours, games, a scavenger hunt in the building and refreshments from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Source: Bridget Clark Whitney, Kids' Food Basket
Writer: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor
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