Friends partners to feed Hawai‘i’s children
When Amy Wilson, president of the PGA TOUR Wives Association and wife of PGA TOUR professional Mark Wilson approached the Friends of Hawai‘i Charities about partnering to feed Hawai‘i’s school children it was an easy decision to make. Providing food on the weekends for elementary school children is nothing new to the Wilsons – they feed children in Chicago through Blessings in a Backpack.
Blessings in a Backpack is a non-profit organization designed to provide weekend nourishment to elementary school children who qualify for free or reduced fee meals under the National School Lunch Program. School children on free and reduced meal plans eat while they are in school, but go home to little or no food in the evenings and on the weekends. Children return to school on Monday hungry and tired. Blessings in a Backpack provides food for school children on the weekends.
Participating schools have seen a dramatic increase in test scores, reduced number of school nurse visits on Monday, increased attendance and better attention/focus in the classroom.
Five years ago Stan Curtis started Blessings in a Backpack with three schools in Kentucky and the program now serves over 100 schools - 20,000 children - in several states across the country including Indiana, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Illinois, California and New York.
Together with partners Sammy Hagar, the PGA TOUR Wives Association, the Friends of Hawai‘i Charities, The Mark and Debi Rolfing Charitable Foundation, and Foodland Super Market, Blessings in a Backpack expanded its program in the fall of 2009 to include three schools in Hawai‘i – 373 children – one school on Maui: Makawao Elementary School; and two schools on O‘ahu: Ke Kula ‘o Samuel M. Kamakau Lab PCS and Punana Leo ‘o S.M. Kamakau.
If you would like to be a small part of these big blessings to Hawaii’s children, please send in your donation check (payable to Friends of Hawaii Charities, designee: Blessings in a Backpack)
Friends of Hawaii Charities
733 Bishop Street, Suite 2160
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
Mahalo to the Blessings in a Backpack Hawaii Partners
