Help feed food insecure families in the West Windsor-Plainsboro community this holiday season by raising $20,000 for the purchase of 800, $25 grocery store cards. We are a program of Mercer Street Friends.
Leader
Melissa Hager
Location
West Windsor and Plainsboro, NJ West Windsor and Plainsboro, NJ 08550
Send Hunger Packing WW-P (SHuP WW-P) is a program of the Mercer Street Friends food bank. Founded in 2017, SHuP WW-P raises funds for the Friday afternoon placement of weekend food bags in the backpacks of food insecure WW-P students in grades K-6 during the school year and the recently established first Little Free Pantry in the community. The food bags supplement what these children receive on school days through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Before the 2020 pandemic, hundreds of WW-P students met the income eligibility requirements for the NSLP and that number has increased significantly during the pandemic. Although low-income families in our community may benefit from the NSLP and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (commonly known as “food stamps”), this support is not enough to ensure adequate household nutrition. A family of four that is eligible for the maximum SNAP benefit receives about $5.30/person/day to purchase food, whereas, the average American spends about $8.70/person/day. During the 2020-2021 school year, when lunch is not being served in our schools, the federal government has allowed NSLP funds to be redirected to provide a box of food to income eligible students using a safe, bi-weekly drive-through procedure at the local distribution site. SHuP wants to raise $20,000 to purchase 800, $25 grocery store cards to help feed the food insecure families in our community. Everyone has the basic human right to food security and you can help make WW-P a hunger-free community!
Our ShuP/LFP volunteers will distribute half of the grocery cards in mid-November before Thanksgiving and the other half in mid-December to food insecure families in West Windsor and Plainsboro, NJ.
Providing adequate nutrition to WW-P’s food insecure families is critical to their health and well-being. Published nutrition research demonstrates that the National School Lunch (NSL) program helps reduce food insecurity, obesity rates and poor health. However, the NSL program alone does not provide enough food for our students on weekends and does not help feed members of the students’ households who are beyond school age. Send Hunger Packing (SHuP) WW-P is committed to raising funds to help families in our community fill the food gap between Federal nutrition programs and the realities of the cost of adequate nourishment. Distributing 800, $25 grocery cards to families in the WW-P community will help them enjoy a happier and healthier holiday season.