WEEKEND SURVIVAL KIT

WHAT IT IS

The Weekend Survival Kit program is intended to meet the nutritional needs of children during non-school hours, specifically on weekends. It targets children who are eligible to receive free breakfast or lunch at school.

According to National Poverty Center, almost one in four children lives in poverty. When children have enough healthy food to eat, they are absent from school less, their tests scores improve, their behavior improves, and they are far healthier overall.

COMMUNITY PARTNERS

ANATOMY OF A KIT

What’s in a kit can vary slightly from week to week. The guidelines are that the food should be kid-friendly, nutritious, easy to prepare, and individually portioned. Some examples of commonly included items are:

100% juice boxes
Oatmeal packets
Pudding cups
Individual apple sauce
Boxes of macaroni & cheese
Canned vegetables
Soup
SpaghettiO’s
Crackers
Fruit snacks
Jar of peanut butter

PROGRAM LOGISTICS

The kits are put together, assembly-line style, by volunteer groups from the community. They generally contain two breakfasts, two lunches, three dinners and two snacks.

Food is placed in a zip top bag, which is then put inside the backpacks at the actual distribution site. Volunteers deliver the food to the schools two Fridays a month.

The Weekend Survival Kits are assembled by volunteers, transported by volunteers, stored by volunteers, delivered by volunteers, and funded by volunteers.

PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS

New schools continue to join the program as groups of volunteers “adopt” a school—fundraise, pack and deliver kits for the students at a particular school.

During the 2011-2012 school year, approximately 500 students at schools from the following districts were participating in the Weekend Survival Kit program:

Dewitt
Okemos
Lansing
Mason
Haslett
Waverly
East Lansing

HOW TO HELP

Donate Food – Kits contain individually portioned, nutritious food that require little or no preparation. Suggested items to donate include:

granola bars
jars of peanut butter
oatmeal packets
boxes of mac & cheese
canned soup
Canned vegetables
100% juice boxes

Donate Time The Weekend Survival Kit program is sustained entirely through volunteer support of time and money. Groups can volunteer to pack the kits or to deliver kits to the schools every other Friday. Others have opted to organize a food drive.

Donate Funds Food for the kits is purchased through the Mid-Michigan Food Bank’s network where $1 has the power to buy the equivalent of $10 of food at retail value. Each kit costs about $5, so $95 sponsors one child for an entire school year. With no overhead or administrative costs, 100% of all donations goes to buying food.

To make a tax deductible donation, checks can be made payable to Haslett-Okemos Rotary Foundation or to Okemos Community Church, with “Weekend Survival Kits” in the memo line.

Donations can be mailed to:
Allegra Marketing • Print • Mail
2863 Jolly Rd
- Okemos, MI 48864

CONTACT

To donate, to volunteer, or for more information, contact Allegra at (517) 333-0713 or info@allegra-okemos.com.