FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Kris Tazelaar, Communications Manager, Second Harvest Foodbank, 608-216-7206, krist@shfbmadison.org
MADISON, Wis., February 15, 2013 – Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin announces that it has received a $2,000 grant from the Evansville Fund and the Meals on Wheels Fund, components of the Community Foundation of Southern Wisconsin, Inc., to support the Evansville Snackpackers BackPack Program.
Second Harvest Foodbank launched the BackPack Program in Evansville in 2005 in partnership with AWARE (a program of Community Action, Inc. in Rock and Walworth counties). Evansville kindergarten through fifth grade students, who qualify for the free/reduced lunch program, and their families benefit from the BackPack Program by receiving nutritious, easy-to-prepare food to take home at the end of every week throughout the school year.
With one in four (27.1%) children in the Evansville school district being eligible for the free/reduced meal program, the Evansville Snackpackers BackPack Program helps to meet the needs of families facing hunger. During the school year, the Evansville BackPack Program assists, on average, 138 children each month.
“Second Harvest Foodbank is grateful for the Evansville and Meals on Wheels Fund’s support of the Evansville BackPack Program,” says Dan Stein, President/CEO for Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin. “By providing nutritious food to children and their siblings at risk of hunger during long weekends and other out-of-school times, these kids are better poised for school and play, and their parents have more money for life’s other necessities.”
Second Harvest Foodbank also operates BackPack Programs with community agencies in Sun Prairie (Dane County), and Tomah (Monroe County).
About the Evansville Fund and the Meals on Wheels Fund
This grant is made available from the Community Foundation of Southern Wisconsin’s Evansville Fund and the Meals on Wheels Fund of the Evansville Fund. The Evansville Fund and the Meals on Wheels Fund of the Evansville Fund are a resource for area nonprofit organizations whose programs and services are working for the betterment of our communities. For more information about this program and how you can impact your community contact Jane Maldonis at the Community Foundation of Southern Wisconsin at 608-758-0883, 1-800-995-2379, or visit the website at www.cfsw.org. The Community Foundation serves Crawford, Grant, Green, Iowa, Lafayette, Rock, Sauk, Vernon, and Walworth counties.
About Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin
Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin is a nonprofit organization committed to ending hunger in 16 southwestern Wisconsin counties through community partnerships. By focusing on a multipronged approach that includes food distribution, increasing participation in public and private food programs, and mobilizing the public, it serves nearly 141,000 people who struggle with hunger each year; 43% of whom are children. From July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012 Second Harvest Foodbank, together with its more than 225 partner agencies and programs, provided nearly 11.5 million meals to those facing hunger. It is one of 200 members of Feeding America, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity. For more information, visit SecondHarvestMadison.org.
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