Marshall Food4Kids would like to thank the community for its support of our program. We are in our 11th year providing bags of nutritious snacks to hungry children in our community. We now serve an average of 770 students each week. During the 2022-2023 school year, we sent home more than 28,100 bags.
 
Unfortunately, the need is only increasing. For example, in the early days of this program, Park Side had 52% of children participating in the Free and Reduced Lunch program. That rate is now 65.5%. The rising cost of food coupled with the loss of one of our major grant supporters also have us redoubling our efforts to make ends meet and continue to provide the same level of service to the children we have in the past.
 
Volunteers generously gave their time to make this program work with well over 600 individuals involved with the preparation and distribution this past year, totaling more than 830 hours. Many of these volunteers help every week of the school year, and some have been with us since the beginning. We are grateful for their help; obviously, we could not have packed and delivered 60 totes of food to 5 schools every week without their dedication.
 
We also could not have done any of this without the big-hearted financial support from local organizations, churches, foundations, businesses, employee groups, and many individuals. While we hope there will come a day when our organization is no longer needed, we still need your help for another year. Your sponsorship will allow us to continue serving children from preschool to 8th grade and the alternative high school in the Marshall Public Schools as well as children in the Head Start program.
 
Marshall Food4Kids is asking you to prayerfully consider donating to our 2024 Sponsor A Child Campaign, which runs from May 1 to May 31. While $175 will sponsor a child for an entire year, any amount you can give will make a difference in the life of a child.
 
Details on donating by check, credit card, or Venmo can be found at our Donate page or by calling/texting 507-401-5554. You can also call us and donate via credit card over the phone. Thank you for your continued support.
 
Sincerely,
The Marshall Food4Kids Board