FFOC partners with Cedar Hills congregation
(Courtesy photo) Cedar Hills Church members delivered 115 gift and food bags to kids to Kootenai Elementary recently. Pictured are Deb Reetz, Andrew Muncherian, Kootenai Elementary principal Kelli Knowles, Michele Murphree, Jean Plue, Tami Heather and Sandy Davis.
Food For Our Children, a local nonprofit organization, is raising money to provide weekend food, during the school year, to our children-in-need in Bonner County. For the last school year, approximately 14,000 food bags were taken home by our children. This holiday season Cedar Hills Church partnered with FFOC to provide an extra bag of food for the holiday break, along with a special gift and a new book.
The Children’s ministry prepared gift bags for 115 Kootenai students as part of the adopt Kootenai School Outreach program at Cedar Hills. Outreach leader, Tami Heather, explains, “rather than reinventing the wheel, we are partnering with other organizations that already have a system in place to serve these kids. Working with FFOC and the Bonner Community Food Bank has made the logistics more efficient. We are encouraged that other churches are also stepping into the opportunity to serve the hungry children in our community.”
In January, North Summit Church will be launching an after school support program that will include a meal for the students of Farmin Stidwell. According to the North Summit youth pastor, Chad Morrison, “we’re starting small this year but hope to serve more as the resources and volunteers become available.”
According to Debbie Love, Director of Bonner Community Food Bank, “we are seeing a 20 percent increase in the last few months due to the recent decrease in benefits of SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program — often referred to as food stamps). That decrease results in more families to feed at our local food bank and more kids in our schools that don’t have the nutritional support necessary for learning.”
If you would like to find out how you can help feed Bonner County children please contact: tami@cedarhillschurch.com, cmorrision@northsummit.com, FFOC at contact@foodforourchildren.org, or debbie@foodbank83864.com.