Stories of Strength: South Plains Food 2 Kids fighting food insecurity in schools
LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - Food insecurity plagues 25 percent of the school-aged children in Texas. That’s why volunteer and director Kacee Hogg is trying to fight that problem in the Lubbock-area.
The former teacher first learned about “South Plains Food 2 Kids” while serving as a member of the Junior League of Lubbock. There, she fell in love with the program, and is now in charge.
“Food 2 Kids is meant as a supplemental program to help food insecure children, so that they’ll have something to eat on the weekends,” she says. “We try to make sure that kids come to school ready to learn Monday morning, and we want them to be ready to go and not be hungry.”
From her time as a teacher, Hogg witnessed the struggles faced by today’s children.
“I had kids in my class that would come to school, and they would be looking through lockers, trying to figure out something to eat. Or, they would want to bargain and try to get other classmates’ food.”
The program is 100 percent volunteer run. The funds mainly come from private individuals.
“All proceeds, or any donations go 100 percent to buying food for the sacks. There is no overhead, I am a volunteer myself,” she says. “And so, anything that is donated goes straight to the kids.”
“Food 2 Kids” has growing support from the community. While filming this month’s segment, Hogg received a delivery from Trey Strong and Robert Wood with “West Texas Land Guys”. While they were there, more than 8,000 Pop Tarts were donated.
Pop Tarts are a staple with Food 2 Kids, and Kacee explained why.
“They say that all the rich kids have Pop Tarts, and that’s kind’ve the feedback we’ve gotten. And so, we make sure that everything that goes in our sacks are name-brand. There’s nothing wrong with generic, but we give name brand items that we would feed our own children or any child.”
Food 2 Kids distributes bags each week to more than 2,000 kids in 32 area elementary schools. To learn more and donate, visit the Web site spfood2kids.org.
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