Kids who are part of the KIDS CAFE program hosted by CENTRAL ILLINOIS FOODBANK will receive added treats thanks to the generosity of employees of ILLINOIS NATIONAL BANK.
Bank employees have launched a drive to provide healthy snack packages for local schoolchildren ages 2 through 17 in the Kids Cafe program.
The program is held after school Mondays through Fridays at Brandon Court and Union Baptist Church. The Springfield Urban League runs the program on behalf of the foodbank.
Single mother MICHELE CURTIS can’t say enough good things about how the program has helped her and her 14-year-old daughter with things like homework, activities and meals.
“They feed them dinner because I work late. It’s a wonderful program,” Curtis said.
“If my daughter didn’t have this program, my daughter would be sitting at home by herself. She probably wouldn’t eat dinner ‘til 8, 9 o’clock at night. Then she wouldn’t have any kind of after-school excitement.”
Many of the children in the program are eligible for free or reduced-price breakfasts or lunches at school. Because Kids Cafe will close for spring break starting March 26, the snacks collected in the drive will be especially beneficial, said GLORIA SHANAHAN, the foodbank’s communications director.
“When spring break or summer comes around, they don’t have that guaranteed meal. What we’re trying to do is help fill that void during spring break,” Shanahan said.
“The kids don’t really have any resources on their own. We are very pleased with INB to step forward to get the snacks going.”
A “shopping day” will be held March 26 for children in the program to pick up their spring break snack-packs. Parents will be invited, too.
The goal is to provide healthy snacks for each of the approximately 100 children who participate in Kids Cafe for each day of school break.
SHEILA MARKS, who volunteers with the program, has a 7-year-old child who participates in Kids Café. The healthy snacks will help Marks and will be popular with other kids, she said.
“It’ll go real good,” Marks said.
Items being collected include peanut butter, jelly, Kraft Easy Mac (macaroni and cheese), granola bars, beef or turkey jerky, 100 percent fruit juice, fruit snacks made with 100 percent fruit, multi-grain crackers, pretzels, 100-calorie snacks, Teddy Grahams, dried fruits (like raisins), applesauce and fruit cups (snacks to be individually packaged). Other kid-friendly items, such as peanuts, dry cereal and pop-up cans of ravioli, are welcome.
“It’s just such a great idea, and we really hope the community steps up. You can imagine, if there’s 100 kids a day, how many snacks we need,” Shanahan said.
Donations can be taken to INB locations through March 24 or may be dropped off from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Central Illinois Foodbank, 2000 E. Moffat Ave.
“We love for people to come by here and take a look around, because then they really see what we do,” Shanahan said. “Once you see a big warehouse, you know that we’re really getting in a lot of food and getting a lot of food out.”
Tamara Browning is a columnist and feature writer for The State Journal-Register. She can be reached at 788-1534 or at tamara.browning@sj-r.com.
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