WKRG News 5 invites you to help us target food insecurity with Stock the Pantry kickoff
Mobile, Ala. (WKRG) — For the past two years, WKRG News 5’s Stock the Pantry Food Drive has helped fill the shelves at Feeding the Gulf Coast with thousands of pounds of food meant for children who will soon be out of school for the summer. This year, the newsroom hopes to make even more of an impact as the food donation event gets ready to kick off.
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Annette Anderson is facing the issue with her students at Chickasaw City Schools. She says, “Sometimes in the cafeteria, you can kind of see the students who may be experiencing food insecurity at home because you can watch how fast they eat or how much they eat or coming back for seconds and want more.”
“1 in 5 children in our community are facing hunger,” says Feeding The Gulf Coast’s Micheal Ledger. “What does that look like? It’s a child coming home to not enough food, maybe no food. We know when schools are out and it’s time for the cafeteria to shut down, kids don’t have access to that very important nutrition.”
Last week our partners for Stock the Pantry picked up their red barrels to be able to collect donations of food — and that’s where you come in. We’re asking you to partner with us as well and donate food for Stock the Pantry and Feeding the Gulf Coast. The organization says your donations do make a difference.
“By folks making these donations in these red barrels and getting them to this food bank so we can sort that food with volunteers who give of their time freely–and then get that out to our pantry network along with our child nutrition sites–makes a difference in the lives of children every single day,” said Ledger.
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Ledger says Stock the Pantry is an important awareness tool as well. Many people may not know about the level of hunger some children are facing. Annette Anderson is keenly aware of it though — she’s on the front lines at Chickasaw City Schools. She even opened her own mini-food bank in the school to help.
“So we have students who are latch-key kids — they get home before their parents and they also have to take care of their siblings. So one way we want to deal with food insecurity is to provide food at the school for them. So not only do they get a free lunch, they also get snacks–they can also go into our pantry and shop for readily, edible items. So they take that and they can feed the little ones at home,” said Anderson.
We’re looking for foods that are easy for students to access without the help of parents or canopeners. Items like individually wrapped foods or pop-top cans–things that can easily be put into a microwave, or just opened and eaten.
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For more information about food insecurity and to learn how to donate to our “Stock the Pantry” initiative, visit our article on where to donate.
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