Feed the Kids Columbus provides bags of food for students during extended school breaks
The former Montgomery Inn in Dublin buzzed with energy Monday morning as about 30 volunteers filled 500 bags with packages of macaroni and cheese, granola bars, goldfish packages, chip bags and candy.
The bags were later dropped off and distributed to Alton Hall Elementary School in South-Western City Schools, where all the students will be receiving a bag.
The effort is part of Feed the Kids Columbus, a local nonprofit group that serves 6,000 students, ages six to 11, in 25 schools in Columbus City, Dublin, Groveport-Madison and South-Western City school districts. The nonprofit's main focus is providing bags of food to students over the extended school breaks during the Thanksgiving holiday and winter and spring breaks.
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"Kids who rely on food from school, when those kids are away from school for an extended period of time, that can be very challenging for them," said Ashley Kanney, the founder and president. "It can cause anxiety, whereas a lot of kids are super excited to be away from school.
How Feed the Kids Columbus started
Kanney began Feed the Kids in December 2019 after realizing that students who rely on free and reduced lunches often go hungry during extended school breaks, like over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Back then, she turned to Facebook and asked if she bought food for students if people would be willing to help pay for it and pack it up. People chipped in and she helped deliver food bags to 97 kids that winter break, thinking it would be a one-time thing.
After seeing how much of an impact the first delivery had, she decided to do it again in March 2020 for spring break. They were able to give away 1,000 bags of food at seven schools before COVID-19 forced schools to switch to remote learning.
With the schools closed during COVID-19, she pivoted to helping out at community centers and then switched to making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
“For all the bad things that COVID-19 did, it did highlight … food insecurity so I think that that in a way helped allow our program to take off,” Kanney said. “It opened people’s eyes that food insecurity is everywhere.”
Feed the Kids Columbus had seven partner schools and had prepared 3,000 snack bags and 105,000 meals by the end of 2020.
By the end of 2021, it had 14 partner schools and had prepared 13,000 snack bags and 193,000 meals.
She applied for Feed the Kids Columbus to become a 501c3 nonprofit in February 2021 and it was approved in June 2021.
She hopes her four children — her daughters are first and third graders at St. Brigid of Kildare and she also has a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old — will want to help fight food insecurity when they get older.
“(Food) is such a small thing to a lot of us, but it’s a lot more than that to these kids," Kanney said. "It’s kind of like giving them a little bit of hope. There are people out there who care about them just because and there are no strings attached to it at all.”
'We want them to be pumped ... to open this bag of food'
Feed the Kids Columbus is very intentional about the food and snacks it packs in bags.
“We want them to be pumped for them to open this bag of food and have things in there they like or they would be excited to try," Kanney said. “We really want to stay away from anything that can end up in the garbage.”
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Dropping the food and interacting with the students is the most rewarding part for him, said Mike Ensminger, a Feed the Kids Columbus board member.
“They get super excited," he said.
This was Dee Forrest’s first time volunteering for Feed the Kids Columbus.
“It’s sad to know that they don’t have food for the break, so it’s nice to know they’ll have this bag of food at home,” the 39-year-old Kingston resident said. “It’s eye-opening. You think that you have rose-colored glasses on that everything is fine, but it’s not."
Kurt Wagner, 50, has volunteered a handful of times with Feed the Kids Columbus.
“It’s such a direct way to fill a need," the Dublin resident said as he opened boxes of granola bars.
Feed the Kids Columbus packed 3,000 bags last week to give to students to have during their Thanksgiving break, Ensminger said.
“We are just trying to make sure they have the fuel they need to grow their bodies, to help learn in schools," he said. "They are our next generations of leaders, so if we can set them up for success, it’s an easy mission to get behind.”
mhenry@dispatch.com
@megankhenry
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Feed the Kids Columbus prepares meal bags to cover school breaks
