(Phoenix, AZ) Lisa Scarpinato had no idea that in her own city hungry children were rummaging through the school trash, looking for food for the weekend.
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Lisa and her husband Vince had been praying for a way to serve God and the community. One night, a family friend came over for dinner. Their friend, a local school principal, shared the heartbreaking story of witnessing a second-grader digging through the school cafeteria trash and storing the discarded food in her pocket. He knew that she was taking it home for her siblings for the weekend.
Thousands of school children throughout the Phoenix metro receive federally subsidized meals for breakfast and lunch during the school week, but often go hungry on the weekends.
Lisa knew that she had to help.
"'Kitchen on the Street' is a faith-based ministry that my husband and I started out of our house in 2006. We started a 501c3 non-profit so that we could feed these students who were food-insecure on weekends," says founder, Lisa Scarpinato.
Kitchen on the Street serves more than 2000 children every year in more than 30 different schools. Ten years ago, they expanded the ministry to San Antonio, Texas.
"I felt like as a Christian, a human being, a mother...all the things that you are...that if I had an interest in helping these kids, I knew others would as well," Lisa remembers.
Kitchen on the Street volunteers pack "bags of hope," weekend nutrition packs filled with non-perishable food items that children can discreetly put in their backpacks on Fridays to bring home for the weekend.
Lisa says the "bags of hope" allow the children to "have the proper nutrition to fuel their bodies so that when they come back to school on Monday, they can be a success in the classroom."
Prior to receiving the extra food, many children took several school days to recover from the lack of weekend nutrition. These children struggled to pay attention and learn. Now students can come to school on Monday, fueled up and ready to focus.
Lisa says entire schools are seeing an uptick in overall scores as children's basic needs are met.
Kitchen on the Street's "bags of hope" also include enough food on the weekend for one full meal for the entire family.
"We realize when a child eats with their family, their vocabulary increases, their grade point average increases, and their drug and alcohol rates decrease," Lisa says.
Lisa has a huge heart and a great sense of humor saying she lives her life "trying to stay out of prison and get into heaven."
