Crest Management Company, AAMC’s Post

Over the past few visits to The Gatjie the 2 questions that comes our way from the children & teens on almost every visit is – are you handing out food?....did you bring food? It's been years since the food situation has been this bad. Kids are telling us that they haven't eaten in days, that they went to school hungry (before holidays) & that their stomach hurts because of the “hungry cramp” (as the kids call it) & this is only getting worse as the days & weeks go by. You can't ask or even expect local council to do anything because they don't lift a finger unless there is a camera present for photo opportunities or a chance to be seen by the local bulletins. The issue of children going hungry is just another thing on their list of things to do that never get done. If you don't believe me simply ask the community, the extreme lack of trust in local council is evident. There are a handful of church groups that hand out fresh produce & loaves of bread but on occasion not everyone gets. It is often a case of first come, first served. I distinctly remember one of our hot food hand outs we did a few weeks ago, we handed out cooked food hours after a church group had handed out produce & bread & the majority of the children & teens told us that they were still hungry & they came back for 2nd & even 3rd helpings during our hand out. When a 5 year old child says – Uncle Dylan pick me up – and you do so & you can hear his stomach rumbling, it is one of the saddest sounds to hear. Unfortunately there is no quick fix solution to this problem. The cost of living is rising every week, the cost of food is increasing weekly. There are food hand outs that don't take place anymore. The quantities that the other community groups hand out is diminishing monthly. I am forever grateful that when Cope with Hope does a hot food hand out we are fortunate enough to be able to serve nutritious & filling food with bread which always helps. With the need for food becoming greater I am making it a priority for Cope to feed the community as often as possible without overwhelming my team in any way #communitybuilding #forthekids #copewithhope #hunger

Summer is finally here! For children facing food insecurity, summer break creates uncertainty. During the school year, many students throughout Southern Colorado receive free or reduced-price breakfast and lunch at school. When school ends for the summer, so do these meals. Eliminating summer hunger is no small challenge, but our team of Partner Food Pantries and Direct Service Sites is increasing food distributions so kids like Daniella can spend more time playing, growing, and creating lasting memories -- like eating lots of Daniella's favorite, strawberries! Ready to support our mission? Head to https://lnkd.in/gJB3ENm to learn how you can get involved!

We got our first eggs this weeks! 3 total eggs valued at $1.24 at the grocery store. [They are free range after all!] Now, that feels like a pretty minimal payout. Less than $2 worth of eggs isn't great ROI on: → $100s in coop materials. → 2 months of weekends spent actually building the coop. → Hours & hours caring for very fragile chicks. → Daily responsibility of feeding & watering. But this doesn't tell the whole story. This doesn't consider how raising chickens Checked the box on so many of our family pillars. Having these animals has helped our family: → Slow down & live at 3mph. → Create life-giving rhythms for our kids. → Eat locally-sourced food. → Work together as a team. To many, our decision to get chickens may seem foolish. To us, it's been worth it 100x over. Dads, Fatherhood isn't about doing what everyone else says is best. It's about finding out what's best for YOUR family & kids. Craft your specific vision. Refine your unique values. Live them out consistently every day. What's something unique that you do in your fatherhood that works for your family?? #burnuntamed

Food insecurity, which the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines as “a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food,” is an important public health problem and an underrecognized social determinant of health. It places a substantial burden on our society through health care and social costs. People experiencing food insecurity often consume a nutrient-poor diet, which may contribute to the development of obesity, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and other chronic diseases. People who live in food-insecure households also have difficulties in managing diet-related chronic conditions. For ECU students experiencing food insecurity, the Williams-Ross Purple Pantry is an invaluable resource. #ecu #foodinsecurity #foodpantry #highereducation

Let’s talk about Food Security 🥦🫐🍓 1 in 5 kids experience food insecurity at home. School breaks can be a time of uncertainty and stress for some families. This Spring Break, over 8000 meals will be distributed across seven school sites. KidSafe aims to fill the gaps by providing daily nutritious meals, take-home groceries, and unlimited snacks. Food security forms one of the core focuses of our programming. We believe every child deserves the nourishment and opportunities they need so they can thrive. Learn more at kidsafe.ca Source: I Can For Kids (January 24th, 2024). 1 in 5 kids lives in a food-insecure home with too little income to buy enough to eat. https://lnkd.in/gBrGkxbs. #KidSafe #FoodInsecurity #unlimitedsnacks #foodsecurity

With the start of a new school year right around the corner, some US states are bringing back free school meals for all kids, regardless of family income. At present, nine states — California, Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, and Vermont — have restored free meals for all students. Most programs are permanent but some, like the one in Nevada, are in place for the 2023-24 school year only. In addition to these nine states, at least 21 other states are working toward expanded meal programs. This list includes Connecticut, which passed legislation this week offering free meals to more, though not all students. Are there ideas or lessons here for Canada? Currently, we are the only G7 country without a national school food program. #foodsecurity #children #schoolnutrition #lessonslearned

Service opportunity! It's often hard to figure out how/where to start when you want to help meaningfully with an issue as huge and nebulous as homelessness, but good works like this REALLY make a bigger difference than you might think. A long, long time ago, when I stayed at Urban Peak's youth shelter, our lunches and dinners were provided by volunteers. Sometimes, the person/group who had signed up would no-show, so our backup was frozen burgers. These events were particularly memorable because the burgers nearly always set off the smoke alarms, and when that happened, we had to go hang out across the street and wait for the fire department to visit and confirm that everything was okay. We made the best of it (brought blankets out to huddle in, pretended to have mini rave dances in the fire engines' lights) ... but no matter how we acted on the surface, every one of us still was hit at least a tiny bit by the stinging message of "People don't keep promises. You're forgotten. Nobody cares about you." These painful beliefs/harmful self-perceptions are already a dangerous, easily-triggerable vulnerability for everyone experiencing homelessness or other chronic trauma, and particularly young people. It wasn't super common (probably happened around once a month on average during my stay), and was very much outweighed by the friendly sincerity of all the volunteers who DID show up -- especially those who would hang out and eat with us (others would sometimes act awkwardly obligated the whole time they were in the kitchen and then nervously shepherd their families away as fast as possible, which I'd say had a relatively neutral impact overall; most of us understood that we could seem a little scary lol). But it still particularly hurt when we were, or at least felt, forgotten. In some ways, feeling forgotten is even worse than feeling feared/disliked. Showing up matters. Every single instance of showing up, even in the most seemingly mundane "here's some food" way, matters. If you're able to make a promise, even a small one, and keep it, then you're able to make an impact that lasts longer than a meal does. Any small bit of involvement, when it's sincere and compassionate, is valuable! In essence: Don't worry about scale. Don't underrate what you can do with very little. As my dad poetically puts it, "The difference between zero and one is infinitely greater than that between one and two". Please help support the Delores Project if you can! And ditto Urban Peak, they're an awesome org too.

The impact on a family's health and budget can be enormous. Purchasing food daily rather than doing a big shop means not only higher costs, but also facing a struggle to buy nutritious food for growing children. That's why our HMP Addiewell Visitor Centre team did everything they could to help a family in need get a much needed new fridge freezer. The Cyrenians team applied to the @BBCChildreninNeed Emergency Essentials Fund on their behalf and within a week, their new appliance was up and running. Learn more about the HMP Addiewell Visitor Centre here: https://buff.ly/3VfgkQI [ALT TEXT: A freezer full of zip-locked bags of vegetables with white text overlay reading "What happens when a family's fridge freezer breaks down?"]

Food Insecurity is a significant factor in student absenteeism For the first time in at least 50 years, a majority of U.S. public school students are from low-income families. 51% of students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade were eligible for the federal program that provides FREE and REDUCED-PRICE lunches. This lunch program is a rough proxy for poverty but the explosion of needy children in the nation’s classrooms is a recent phenomenon that has been gaining attention among educators, public officials, and social researchers. Even in wealthy Sarasota County, 52% of children were eligible for FREE LUNCHES-an an indicator of food insecurity at home meaning that they don’t have consistent access to sufficient quantities of affordable, nutritious food. Our Club in partnership with AAll Faiths Food Bank decided that we should help in alleviating this problem. In 2015 our Club/Foundation awarded AFFB a $60,000 five (5) year grant to place food pantries in all Title 1 schools in Sarasota County Schools We also committed to operating these pantries where needed. These school-based pantries are located on the school campus, making them a more readily accessible source of food assistance to families in need. They also try to be open at convenient school times so families can shop when arriving at school to pick up their children. So far, there are thirteen (13) school-based pantries in the program. Seven (7) of these are Title 1 schools. The top three (3) are Emma E Booker Elementary, Altavista Elementary School and Tuttle Elementary with Almost 95%, 92%, and 91% respectively of their students on FREE or REDUCED-PRICE lunches. The school district also provides FREE breakfasts to these schools. The Alta Vista Food Pantry was every other Thursday from 2:30pm-6pm excepting school breaks. We packed out food items for 60 families 2:30-3:30 and distribute from 3:30-6:00. During Holidays, we run Turkey Pantry, that operate like a regular Pantry, plus we would pack 125 Turkeys and Thanksgiving meal kits. #givingchallenge2024 #foodpantry #endinghunger #rotary #rotaryclubofsarasotafoundation #SarasotaCountySchools #allfaithsfoodbank #AltavistaSchool

Partnerships have always been my go-to track to achieve anything.