Sheboygan, here’s how you can help feed 450 kids weekend meals and snacks. Plus, more news in weekly dose.
SHEBOYGAN - Sixteen years ago, Sheboygan County resident, mother and now Food for Thought for Kids co-lead volunteer Anjenette Pond had a conversation with a teacher at a local school that made her realize there were hungry kids in the teacher’s class.
“The teacher and I came up with a plan that our family was going to respond to this need and give food to the couple of kids to put in their backpacks and bring home for the weekends,” Pond said in a news release.
Fast forward to a decade later, Pond met with Sheboygan County Food Bank to see if her work could be formalized into a program to help more kids. This came at a time when Nourish, another local non-profit, recently approached SCFB to take over their Good Food Club, a small program designed to provide weekend food to about a dozen Longfellow Elementary School students in need.
Aligning with SCFB’s mission to increase the food security of its residents by distributing healthy emergency food, in 2018 SCFB officially established Food for Thought for Kids to serve more kids weekend food.
SCFB is launching a crowdfunding campaign, Fund Food for Thought, with the goal of supporting 450 children through Food for Thought for Kids during the 2023-2024 school year.
SCFB said it is counting on individuals, companies and organizations to help donate and spread the word on social media.
The campaign website page is the hub for donating and following updates on the goal progress, top supporters and recent donations.
Donors can choose from different donation levels (various levels from $5 to $1,000, or any other amount) that describe exactly how the donation will make a difference.
The SCFB said that for $200, a donor can provide nutritious weekend meals and snacks for one child for the entire 2023-2024 school year.
SCFB’s first goal is to raise $30,000 to feed 150 children for the 2023-2024 school year. When $30,000 is reached, SCFB said it will unlock its next goal, which will bring it closer to its final goal of supporting 450 children for the upcoming school year.
The latest available statistics estimate about 5,000 children in Sheboygan County are living with hunger. Studies show children who are hungry have a hard time focusing in school, are likely to fall behind academically, become at risk for illness and poor attendance, and often have low self-esteem and lack of energy.
Food for Thought for Kids is one of Sheboygan County Food Bank’s ongoing programs in partnership with 24 local schools that is dedicated to supporting children facing hunger. SCFB works with teachers, counselors, principals and volunteers to make sure children who don’t have enough food to eat on the weekends get a bag filled with 10 nutritious items, including fresh fruit and other easy-to-eat food, at the end of each school week.
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Here is more news from throughout Sheboygan County in your weekly dose.
▶ Memorial Day celebration planned at Lao, Hmong and American Veterans Memorial: Following the 9 a.m. Sheboygan Memorial Day parade May 29, the public is invited to Deland Park, 715 Broughton Drive, to attend the celebration at the Lao, Hmong and American Veterans Memorial.
The ceremony begins at 11:30 a.m. The event will include remarks by LHAVM Chairman Xia Vue Yang and Sheboygan Mayor Ryan Sorenson.
The memorial celebrates the camaraderie between the Hmong and Lao warriors during the era of the Secret War in Laos and their American counterparts, namely the U.S. Special Forces and Air America crews. A T-28 flyover by pilot Paul Walter showcases the plane flown by Hmong pilots.
The keynote speaker of the day will be Maj. Steven Schofield, author of “Secret War in Laos: Green Berets, CIA and the Hmong.” He served as a medic in the U.S. Army Special Forces in Okinawa, Taiwan, Philippines and in Vietnam, and with USAID Public Health Division in Laos.
After returning from Laos, he joined the Special Forces Army Reserve and retired as a major in 1995 and today is an active supporter of the Lao, Hmong and American Veterans’ Memorial.
Eighteen new panels being added to the memorial will be dedicated, and the event will be rounded out by Hmong cultural dancers.
Following the event, attendees are invited to attend the SGU luncheon at Deland Park, and all are invited to visit the Aviation Heritage Center at the Sheboygan County Airport, where the connection between the Hmong and Air America is showcased in detail. Air America pilot Neil Hansen will be on hand.
Read more: He flew for Jimmy Hoffa and the CIA's secret airline. Meet Air America pilot Neil Hansen.
▶ Beethoven’s Fifth highlights Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra’s season finale May 20: Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra — the longest continually active orchestra in the state that dates to its 1918 founding — will wind down its season with a 7:30 p.m. May 20 concert at the Stefanie H. Weill Center for the Performing Arts.
The concert will feature the well-known Symphony No. 5 by Ludwig van Beethoven.
“Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is the most famous symphony for a reason,” said Music Director Ernesto Estigarribia in a news release. “It’s effusive, it’s energetic and rebellious, but most of all it conveys overcoming of the ups and downs of life.
“We all have those fateful curve balls life throws us, and Beethoven’s Fifth shows us aspirational triumph over them, the light at the end of dark, that sweet, glorious victory,” he added.
The program opens with “Into the Wild” by Minnesota-born composer Jacob Bancks, which takes audiences to both rural and urban “wild” spaces, followed by Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto featuring Bella Hristova, acclaimed for her “passionate and powerful performances.”
The season finale concludes with Beethoven’s Fifth.
Tickets start at $14. To get pricing and purchase tickets, call the Weill Center ticket office at 920-208-3243 or visit in person between noon and 5 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays. Learn more at sheboygansymphony.org.
▶ Sheboygan airport to resume Wings and Wheels Father’s Day tradition: After three years off because of COVID-19, Sheboygan EAA Chapter 766 will resume its Wings and Wheels event at the Sheboygan County Memorial Airport on Father’s Day, June 18.
The airport is off County Trunk O, a mile-and-a-half west of State 32, or 1 mile north of State 23 on County Trunk TT.
Admission is free and offers the public the chance to see the airport in operation up close. This includes viewing the Aviation Heritage Center displays and the newly constructed airport terminal facility.
A pancake breakfast will start the day, serving from 7 to 11 a.m. in the Wisconsin Aviation Heritage Center building. Money raised is used to support the EAA Chapter 766 scholarships and other aviation-related programs.
In addition to the pancake breakfast, six local food trucks will be serving from 10 a.m. until the end of the event. Water and soda will be available from the Dairy Lane Farm Heritage Preservation Association.
Wings and Wheels will again feature antique and modern aircraft, classic cars, antique tractors, model trains, classic boats, Rockets for Schools and other displays.
Attendees will have access to the flight line to view visiting aircraft as well as the 1941 North Central Airlines DC-3 being renovated by the Wisconsin Aviation Heritage Center.
Airplane rides above the local area will be available for a fee. Flights will start at 10 a.m. and will continue until all rides are given.
If feasible, Flight for Life and the Town of Sheboygan Falls Fire Department will be in attendance with their equipment on display.
Read last week's top stories:
Emerald ash borer: Years into the emerald ash borer infestation, Sheboygan continues to treat standing trees and recycle dead ones
Sheboygan history Throwback: Former Sheboygan Press staffers recall the moment presses stopped 25 years ago. ‘It was a Good Run,’ the headline read.
City administrator: Sheboygan is conducting a nationwide search for its next city administrator. Here’s when they hope to have one in place.
Local food: Sheboygan Falls’ Nourish Farms preps for third annual Local Food Fair
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This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Sheboygan County Food Bank crowdfunding for weekend meals, snacks
