November/December issue of Vacaville Magazine.
End Hunger by Cindy Christison
End 68 Hours of Hunger is a not-for-profit effort to confront the 68 hours of hunger experienced between Friday lunch and Monday breakfast by food-insecure school children. While the non-profit began in New Hampshire in 2011, our chapter began in Vacaville in December 2013 at Fairmont Elementary School. Our first week we packaged 17 bags of food and nearly doubled it to 30 bags in our second week!
We have had tremendous growth in the last year and are now serving approximately 95 children at four schools (Hemlock, Fairmont, Markham and Kairos) on a weekly basis throughout this school year. The process begins with our Supply Team purchasing food on a weekly basis. Then the Production team packs the bags at the Vacaville Storehouse, who has graciously offered us storage and operating space since the start of the program. After packing the bags, we have a group of volunteer deliverers who bring the bags to the schools every Friday morning during the school year. For Hemlock, the Presbyterian Community Church has been managing the deliveries. Our program has been successful in large part thanks to the generosity and collaboration with our local community partners.
What is food insecurity?
Childhood food insecurity is a national problem that occurs when children receive insufficient food on a regular basis; in many cases missing meals entirely. After a while, these children also experience “fear of hunger” that affects their behavior as much as physical hunger affects their bodies. There are more than 16 million food insecure children in America today.
How can you help?
We can always use volunteers for the following activities: packing bags, delivering food, managing a donation pick-up location or food drive, applying for grants, fundraising support (we hope to do a poker tournament in February) and publicity/marketing support.
Donations are welcome to End 68 Hours of Hunger, 3336 North Texas Street, Suite J #187, Fairfield, CA 94533 or via PayPal (link is located here: www.end68hoursofhunger.org/donate)
If you buy from Amazon, use Amazon Smile and donate to our charity!
We are having a fundraiser at Tahoe Joe’s for Tuesday, November 15. If you would like to help us sell or purchase a ticket for a $20 meal, please email us at vacaville@end68hoursofhunger.org.
Who are we?
There are many volunteers that support our non-profit but our 2016-2017 Board Members are as follows:
- Cindy Christison, Program Coordinator
- Marisa D’Souza, Production Team Lead
- Brandi Brown, Supply Team Lead
- Emma Mendiola-Bosse, Finance Chair
- Lynne Powell, Program School Liaison
- Brandon Cherry, Fundraising Chair
- Bianca Bustos-Velazquez, Publicity Chair
Our board meets on a biweekly basis Wednesdays at 4:30 pm at Peet’s Coffee and we would love your support! Learn more about us at www.end68hoursofhunger.org contact us at vacaville@end68hoursofhunger.org or find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/end68vacaville.
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