Help out children at home by giving to Belly Buddies

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Glendale Elementary is beginning its fifth year of a feeding program, “Belly Buddies.”
The mission and purpose of Belly Buddies is to provide yummy, healthy and nutritious foods to students in need.
Katie Richard, creator of the program, and Pre-K teacher at Glendale, says, “Our cafeteria does a great job of serving breakfast and lunch each day to our students, however, there are students on weekends and holidays who struggle at home with little or no food. This outreach program is a chance for our school to meet our students’ needs, and to be the hands and feet of Jesus.”
Richard did her research: “According to recent studies, 1 in 5 children in the US struggles with hunger. Unfortunately, we have children at our school, right here in Eunice, that may not have food at home.”
Teachers at Glendale submit a discreet list of student names to Richard, and Richard, along with other volunteer teachers and New Hope church members, pack up the ‘ready-to-eat’ foods.
On Fridays, the students take home “Belly Buddy bags” full of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack items for the weekend.
Some examples of the foods are: cereal, fruit cups, granola bars, Easy Mac, Spaghetti-O’s, etc.
“We ask for “child friendly” foods that the students can easily prepare themselves,” said Richard.
Those who wish to donate food items, or make a monetary donation toward food purchases, can do so by dropping off at the school’s office, at 900 West Dean Street, or call 457-4121.
Some suggestions of food items are: individual boxes of cereal, granola bars, ramen noodles, fruit cups, poptarts, Vienna sausage, crackers, applesauce, fruit chews. Items must be single serving packages that are easy for little hands to open.
Richard has plans in the works to grow the “Belly Buddies” program to more schools in the area. “I know there are students at all of our schools here in town that would benefit from this program.
“It’s going to take some work, but it’s absolutely worth it. While we are meeting an important temporary need with the food in these bags, I also know that we are forming relationships, and showing these children that we care about them, and that could have an eternal impact on their lives and ours.”