Feed the Kids prepping for summer

By Amanda Rogers

Mansfield Record

Mansfield’s Common Ground is cooking up another summer of Feed the Kids, prepping to feed more than 1,000 in-need youngsters each week, starting May 21.

The non-profit volunteer organization has been feeding kids since the early 2000s after Mansfield ISD personnel noticed that students were returning to school in the fall hungry from a summer of a shortage of food.

“Feed the Kids is important for ensuring that kids have access to nutritious food that will help them prepare for the next school year,” explained Suzy Herrmann, co-chair of the Feed the Kids program. “If you’re worried about where your next meal is going to come from, you’re not going to be able to concentrate on school.”

Herrmann and her co-chairs, Andrew Hudson, Corey Nieman and Sarah Dooley, round up donations of food and funds to supply bags of foods for 12 weeks each summer. Each bag contains seven breakfasts, seven lunches and seven snacks. They will start with 975 bags each week, but expect they will be packing and delivering up to 1,300 by the end of summer.

“It’s all kid-friendly,” Herrmann said. “The food requires no use of an oven or stove. The kids can pull off a pop top and eat.”

Each bag costs $9.10, which will amount to a cost of more than $100,000 over the course of the summer. As the program has grown, the need has grown – and so has the price of food.

“It’s all paid for through donations from the great people of Mansfield, Texas,” Herrmann said. “We have individuals and other charities that help, like Mansfield Cares and the Mansfield Women’s Club.”

People can donate funds or food, Herrmann explained. The program needs single-serving sizes of Chef Boyardee dinners, fruit cups, macaroni and cheese and Jell-O pudding.

People find creative ways to raise funds, like Dooley, a teacher, who worked with the students at her school to make and sell baked goods, raising $250 for last year’s program.

“Last year, kids came with their piggy banks,” Herrmann said. “They see the need and they are learning to help.”

Donors can go to Amazon and choose food off the Feed the Kids’ wish list, which will be delivered directly to the program, or they can give online. For more information on how to help, click here.

Even more people get hands-on, lining up to pack and deliver the food to the kids each week. From May 21-Aug. 6, volunteers meet at 10 a.m. each Wednesday to unpack boxes and stage the food at 703 E. Broad St., then more volunteers return at 6 p.m. Wednesdays to pack and distribute the food. The bags of food are sorted and delivered to food pantries, where the families can pick them up. The food will be packed and delivered for 12 weeks, with the exception of July 2. Volunteers will double up the week before so that kids will not miss a week, Herrmann said.

“Everyone is welcome to help,” Herrmann said. “Kids, babies, you don’t have to sign up, just show up.”

Last year, volunteers lined up to help. Due to end-of-school activities, volunteers are really needed for the first two weeks – May 21 and May 28.

Parents who need to sign their kids up to receive food can go to the local food pantries – HIM Food Bank, St. Jude Catholic Church, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Mansfield Mission Center, Rush Creek Christian Church, Lighthouse for the Nations, Community Action Partners and First Methodist Church’s Peina Food Pantry.

Some of those youngsters will be taking home more than food, too. Since 2012, Feed the Kids has been handing out books from Half Price Books with the bags of food. Children can select and keep books at Community Action Partners, St. Jude, Bethlehem Baptist and First Methodist’s Peina Food Pantry.

“These kids are our future,” Herrmann said. “We want to give them every opportunity to succeed.”

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