AREA SNACK PROGRAM BENEFITS FROM INGLES GENEROSITY
Eight years ago it started with one little boy in one classroom at Woodfin Elementary School, when kindergarten teacher Vickie Hensley called to seek help for one of her students.
This particular little boy looked on as his classmates ate at snack time while he would have gone without, except for the kindness of his teacher who brought something from home each day for him.
Today with more than 1,000 classrooms in five counties receiving snacks each day, the Food for Thought Outreach has reached record numbers this past school year. But as our economy began to decline, so did many of the resources that Eblen Charities relied on for the Food for Thought Program.
At the beginning of the 2011 school year, Eblen found its snack cupboard bare.With hundreds of classrooms and after school programs depending on the long-running Food for Thought Program to make sure so many of their students would be able to have something to eat during the day, Eblen Charities realized that something different had to be done.
Upon hearing the need is growing to unprecedented numbers and resources dwindling, it didn’t take long for Ingles Markets to quickly step up to ensure that children in western North Carolina will be able to face the school day without worrying about hunger.
Through this new and unique partnership, the Ingles / Eblen Food for Thought program will expand and strengthen Eblen’s existing program of providing snacks by enlisting Kellogg’s, Chicago Custom Foods, Conagra Foods, Kernel Season’s, Kraft Foods and other national vendors to ensure that children in our community will not go hungry at school.
“We are honored and grateful to Bobby Ingle, Jim Lanning, Tom Outlaw, Melissa Leavelle, David Bay, and everyone at Ingle’s Markets for their kindness and generosity in making sure that children who are less fortunate in these difficult times do not have to go without snacks that their parents may not be able to afford,” states Bill Murdock, Executive Director of Eblen Charities. “Our community is indeed fortunate to have a company such as Ingles who reach out to so many in need. Western North Carolina has no greater friend.”
The Ingles / Eblen Food for Thought program works with local school systems, area credit unions, businesses and civic groups to provide food for children who cannot afford to bring snacks to school each day. Operating in Buncombe, Henderson, Haywood, Transylvania, and Madison Counties, the Ingles / Eblen Food for Thought program provides more than 100,000 snacks each year.
Other partners with Food for Thought include: The Sunrise Service Club, the Credit Unions of North Carolina, Hearts With Hands, Carolinas Credit Union Foundation, and Asheville Cleaners.
For more information on the Ingles / Eblen Charities Food for Thought program please contact Bill Murdock at Eblen Charities at 828-242-2848 or via email at eblenfound@aol.com.
CHILDREN HUNGER STATISTICS:
According to the USDA, in 2009, 16 million children lived in households that did not have an adequate supply of food, and almost 3 million of these children lived in households that experienced hunger.
Research indicates that hungry children do more poorly in school and have lower academic achievement because they are not well prepared for school and cannot concentrate.
More than 50% of students in Buncombe County Schools participate in the free or reduced lunch programs.
49 million Americans continue to live in households that did not have an adequate supply of food. Nearly one-third of these households contain adults or children who went hungry at some point in the past year.
