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Community Food Bank, Inc
8/2010 - The Community Food Bank, Inc of Tucson Arizona opened in a small facility on New Year’s Day 1976, making it one of the first food banks in the nation. Since those first few years, the Community Food bank has gone from serving 500 meals to 48,000 meals a day.
In March 2010, The Stocker Foundation awarded $20,000 toward Snak Paks for Kids. Community Food Bank partnered with St. Francis in the Foothills United Methodist Church and Erickson Elementary in 2004 to start the Snak Paks program which provides healthy food over the weekend for school-aged children at risk for hunger. The Community Food Bank works together with churches and service clubs in the area to assemble and deliver backpacks of food to the schools, so that on Friday, the children can take home a pack filled with healthy snacks for the weekend.
“One of my Moms came, in tears, to thank me for putting her children in the Snak Paks program,” one teacher commented from Pueblo Gardens Elementary, “They have been going through a very difficult time and the snacks provided a little security for her children.”
The program provides much needed nutrition for children in school, keeping them healthy and helping them focus more on learning. In addition, the backpacks are used to send information to the children’s families on healthy eating, services of the food bank, and Federal programs for which they might qualify. By providing them with a back pack filled with simple nutritional information and snacks like fresh fruit, Community Food Bank is committed to make healthy living a reality for school children in Tucson, Arizona.
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