"Our school district suffers from a high rate of poverty. As a
result, children come to school having not eaten over the
weekend. Our teachers have documented that this lack of food
causes fatigue, absenteeism, and poor health, and is impacting
the children's ability to learn." -Heather Conway, Collaboration
For Kids, Menominee Indian School District During the 2010-2011
school year, the Menominee Indian School District gave their
pre-K and Kindergarten kids a "Smart Sack," or backpack stuffed
with nutritious snacks on Fridays so that they have food to eat
on the weekends. Teachers saw a big difference and came to
Running Strong to help more kids in their school. Together, we
worked out a plan to expand "Smart Sacks" from pre-K through the
3rd grade, feeding 300 kids each week! That's 9,000 total Smart
Snacks for this upcoming school year! Running Strong will send
healthy foods like milk, sunflower seeds, chicken noodle soup,
beef stew, fruit and grain bars, oatmeal and raisins for each
week. School volunteer