(Denver, CO) - More than 50,000 Denver-area elementary school-aged children go hungry every weekend. Although public schools provide free and reduced-cost lunches during the week, the weekends often mean growling tummies.
After being challenged by a food bank director to fill the weekend food gap, realtor Bob Bell answered the call.
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Bob and his buddies got together and came up with Food for Thought Denver, a volunteer-driven non-profit dedicated to ending weekend hunger for children by sending home "Power Sacks" with enough food to feed a family of four two meals.
Although many local schools provide meals during the week to low-income students, Bob says, "When they take off on Friday afternoon, they by and large don't have a real path of how they're gonna eat until they get back to school on Monday."
The effects of hunger are profound on a child, Bob says.
"They can't socially integrate; they certainly can't learn."
Food for Thought Denver is now providing snacks and meal items to students at 76 area schools. Every child receives a Power Sack so that no child is singled out. Many of the parents are very grateful.
"When we do a school, we do the school. It's not going in saying...you know we've got enough for 50 of your 300 kids. We feed every kid in that school. We already know the poverty window is great there, so we're not about stigmatizing a kid by making him stand up tin this line and saying 'if your life sucks worse than this kid over here, you can have the food.' That doesn't work"," Bob says.
Every child is treated the same.
What do the kids think?
"I can tell you first hug from a lot of these kids that it makes a difference culturally to them and more than the food. The food is great. It's good for their belly--no doubt about that. But what matters to them is the consistency of people showing up for them, that we haven't missed now in ten years. We haven't missed a single Friday for these kids."
How's this all been for Bob?
"Heaven."