As a result of the high cost of living in Western Connecticut, many families struggle to pay for food after covering expenses for housing, utilities, car payments, and insurance.
Families whose school-aged children are eligible for Free and Reduced Price Lunch have some relief knowing that their children are provided with food five days a week during the school year. But weekends and summer months can cause food hardship in many families.
To address the food insecurity of children, United Way works with community partners to provide additional weekend food packs for children attending Stamford Public Schools, where more than 50% of the public school children are eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch.
United Way has expanded the reach of the weekend food programs by partnering with Stamford Food Collaborative members and Filling in the Blanks.
HOW THE PROGRAM WORKs
- Social workers within each school identify the children in need and sign them up to receive a bag of nutritious, easy-to-prepare food each Friday to take home for the weekend.
- Each pack includes enough food to feed the child until he/she returns to school on Monday morning, including fresh fruit.
- By surveying Stamford Public Schools, we were able to create a more efficient distribution system for weekend food in that city.
For more information about the Weekend Food Program, contact Cara Mitchell at 203-883-0879 or cara.mitchell@uwwesternct.org
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
40 additional children served in Stamford each year
$17,500 in additional grant funding awarded to support weekend food since 2017
SUCCESS STORY
Learn how something as simple as weekend food changed one child’s whole outlook on life