Hilltown Families 
Children’s Volunteer Morning at The Food Bank
Children’s Volunteer Morning at The Food Bank
Monday, December 23rd, 2013
This community service-based learning opportunity will take place during school vacation week on Monday, December 23rd, 2013, and offers kids and their families a chance to volunteer together while learning about food security and the important work the Food Bank does to support food security in the region.
1 in 5 children in Western Massachusetts live in food insecure households. The holidays are a particularly difficult time for families in need, who must juggle higher heating costs, children needing more meals at home (instead of at school), and recent cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), all while trying to put food on the table and make the holidays a special time for the whole family.
You and your family can help the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts provide food for your neighbors in need during a special Children’s Volunteer Morning in Hatfield. This community service-based learning opportunity will take place during school vacation week on Monday, December 23rd, 2013, and offers kids and their families a chance to volunteer together while learning about food security and the important work the Food Bank does to support food security in the region. Activities include a tour of the Food Bank’s warehouse and sorting food donations. See what types of food are donated and how they are organized for distribution, learn about food systems, and have meaningful conversations with your kids about hunger issues.
Interested families can sign up for a morning shift (9am-11:30am) or an afternoon shift (1pm-3:30pm). Email jerods@foodbankwma.org or call 413-247-9738 x114 to register.
FOOD DRIVE: Can’t participate but still want to support the Food Bank of Western MA. Hilltown Families is hosting a Virtual Food Holiday Drive families can participate in online. Every $1 donated through the Hilltown Families Virtual Holiday Food Drive equals $13 worth of food distributed to families in need (the equivalent of nearly 10 meals!). In other words, your $1 dollar donated through our virtual food drive to The Food Bank of Western MA will feed 10 people a much needed meal!
LEARNING RESOURCES: Looking for resources to support child(ren)/student’s learning of hunger and food security? Check these out: 19 Children’s Books on Food Security/Scarcity and Youth Against Hunger Education.
FIELD TRIP: What to organize a field trip for your group to the Food Bank? Find out more in this post: FIELD TRIP: The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts.
What else? Find out how you can donate in your community and fight hunger in your backyard with The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts.
Hello everyone, this is Jerod Shuford, the Education Coordinator at The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. Due to an amazing response from you all, we are closing registration for the morning (9:00 to 11:30) shift.
Anyone who is interested, but did not register yet can either sign up for the afternoon shift, which still has some room, or can email me and I’ll place you on a waiting list and if anyone cancels I’ll contact people in the order that I received emails from them to invite them to take the spot.
Thanks so much for your support! Your help is going to mean so much to families struggling with food issues this Holiday season! We look forward to seeing everyone here on the 23rd, and to more wonderful opportunities like this in the future!