As a struggling single mom for many years, I learned to appreciate a lot of things. I am thankful for my family support, the scholarship my son had for the YMCA after school program, and the people at my church who so graciously lent a helping hand when it was needed. Since moving to rural Georgia and living in a predominantly poor community the last 5 years, I have again become aware of the hardships many families face. Only this time, I am in a position to help other people in need. I feel like it’s my duty after all of the love and generosity that was bestowed upon me and my son. I am so honored to be working with Champions for Kids and The Motherhood on this sponsored campaign, to help promote their Snacks for Students program.
The Champions for Kids Snacks for Students initiative supports local kids and provides them with nourishment they need. I was asked to find and work with a local non-profit organization to help children in our area.
I teamed up with Family Connections and Communities In Schools of Glascock County, Inc. to provide snacks for their after school program. The after school program is essential to our community, providing free after school care to students and parents in need. The program has provided students with a safe place to go after school, in addition to assistance with homework and studies.
Students grades have improved so much with this help that the after school program lost some grant money that is earmarked for failing schools. Losing that grant money was a hard hit to the after school program, but the people at Family Connections and Communities In Schools have creatively found ways to keep the program going. Donations like those through the Snacks for Students program will help them so much.
My local participating Walmart store is in Sandersville, Georgia. Through today you can head to more than 3,600 participating Walmart stores and purchase snacks and breakfast items for children and place them inside designated donation bins. In addition to donations placed in the bins, Champions for Kids, General Mills, Kellogg’s, Emerald and Kettle Chips will provide 13 awards, totaling $45,000, to school districts and participating youth-based organizations based on the total number of donated items collected in each store.
Head HERE to find a Champions for Kids participating Walmart.
Armed with a $100 Walmart gift card, my mom and I headed to our local Walmart to pick up some snacks for the after school program. We filled our cart with items like fruit cups, graham crackers, cheese crackers, animal crackers and more to feed snacks to the 45 students who attend the after school program.
At the time of our donation, our store didn’t have the donations bins set up yet, so we delivered the items directly to our local Family Connections and Communities In Schools office.
I am so thankful for Champions for Kids and their Simple Giving program. It is so easy to do your own Simple Giving project, and help your own community. Champions for Kids offers inspiration, ideas, and tools to help you with your project.
About Champions for Kids
Champions for Kids has helped more than 5.4 million children across all 50 states since 2004 through in-store donation campaigns, service projects and community events. In 2013, SIMPLE Giving began in 24 central Arkansas Walmart stores and was extended to Walmart stores across 11 states in 2014. The Snacks for Students program is the first of several campaigns to launch nationally, with the goal to provide resources for more than 10 million children in 2015.
They make it simple to give kids in your community the resources they need to thrive – just donate items to the purple donation pins at either entrance of your local Walmart store.
Be sure to follow the #SnacksForStudents hashtag and connect with Champions for Kids on Twitter and Facebook.
What a fabulous program! There’s nothing worse then trying to focus and learn when your hungry. Sadly, kids go through this everyday. I participate in a similar program in my community and it always breaks my heart to see how many kids actually need to use the donated items. It’s great to see you bring some light to this program in this post and let your readers know that every little bit helps!
This is an amazing program. Child hunger should be tackled seriously. I love these kind of programs
What a great program. I will have to look and see if it is available at the stores around here. I’ll have to donate too.
What an amazing program. Childhood hunger leads to so many easily preventable problems later in life.
This is such a great program. I really like that the donations stay in our community.
This is such a great program to help kids and families in need. I’ll have to look and see if it’s happening in my area.
This is a great program. I want to do my part. I am going to see if I can find it in my area.
That’s a great program. I love initiatives like this that gives back.
This is such a wonderful program. I’ll be looking for the bins at my local Walmart.
This is an awesome program. I like that it supports local children. It makes it easy that Walmart supports this and I will be looking for the boxes!