ST. GEORGE — Men and women crammed into a small garage in Santa Clara Wednesday afternoon, sharing the hot space with dozens of bright orange cracker boxes, piles of blue Capri Sun pouches, trays of chocolate milk and apple juice, and more stacked goods. Classic Rock music rattled in the background as these Neighborhood Connection volunteers prepared charity weekend meal packs for Washington County School District kids.
“A young boy told me that since we’ve been feeding him, he doesn’t have to steal on the weekends,” said Donna MacBean, executive director of Neighborhood Connection. “Another little boy said he didn’t have to eat only butter over the weekend for food, since that was all that was left in his fridge.”
Neighborhood Connection organizes and provides food packing events 35 weeks of the year, once a week. Once volunteers package individual meals — two breakfasts and two lunches per student — MacBean delivers the packages to Washington County schools, according to the schools’ specific requests. The schools then deliver the food out to students they know are in need of food over the weekends, when schools can’t provide breakfasts or lunches.
“We hope it’s just a supplement to what they already have,” MacBean said, “but sometimes there’s no food (at home).”
Each food pack costs $3, and it takes Neighborhood Connection about $96,000 to feed 800 students for one year.
Drawing from previous years’ figures, MacBean said, Washington County School District tends to have around 1100 homeless students, kids who don’t have a permanent place to rest their heads at night. These are the students who especially need food support, they said.
“It’s the hidden poverty,” said Nick Bujanovich, the nonprofit’s board chairman. “These people are on paycheck to paycheck, if not worse, and anything that their kids can get that helps them bring something home is a delight.”
Tim Mills, general manager of Findlay Hyundai, joined his business as Neighborhood Connection’s title sponsor earlier this year.
“There’s so many great charities out there, but this one really felt good and we felt strong about it,” Mills said. “We wanted to support a local charity. Feeding kids certainly has a need, even in our area where some people are so fortunate. (MacBean) feeds between 600 to 800 kids a week in eight different schools.
All the kids that take the food, MacBean said, are elementary school students — she said middle school students refuse to take them.
Although the Rotary Club was primarily manning the event last Wednesday, MacBean said, many organizations help every week, including church groups, university groups and any individual who wants to chip in. The packing took about an hour with all hands on deck.
MacBean and five other members of Neighborhood Community use donated money to buy over $3000 worth of groceries for a single packing event every week.
“We get the big carts,” she said. “There’s a whole herd of us. We try to do it on Tuesdays and Thursdays because Costco opens those days early.”
Those interested in helping Neighborhood Connection in their goal to feed Washington County kids can donate money on the nonprofit’s website, volunteer to help pack food, or donate food to the organization. Donators can “sponsor” a child for a month for $12, or they can sponsor them for an entire school year for $111.
For information on packing days and locations, contact Neighborhood Connection at 435-313-4725
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