When summertime rolls around every year, so does two of our favorite programs – Feed Our Kids and GRACE Grocery Giveaway! We are so blessed with teams of volunteers that make each of these programs available to our community.
Last year, Feed Our Kids provided over 34,000 lunches to the children of the Grapevine/Colleyville Independent School District during the summer months. Volunteers, organizations and departments from all over the community dish out everything from grilled hamburgers and hotdogs to special pizza parties with snow cones for dessert! With six different sites for area families to benefit from, GRACE wants to ensure that no child goes hungry!
Our amazing group of FOK volunteers arrive not only with meals for the kiddos, but also with board games, sidewalk chalk, bubbles and balls to throw! It’s truly a “recess hour” for all those in attendance. The other feeding program here at GRACE is our Grocery Giveaway! In partnership with Tarrant Area Food Bank, we set up at two of the existing Feed Our Kids sites where families are given the opportunity to “shop” for a variety of food items including fresh produce. The tables are set up like a Farmer’s Market; intentionally structured to develop a positive relationship with the recipients, so the family can select the foods that meet their dietary needs and meal preferences. Since the beginning of the summer, over 375 families have partaken in the GRACE Grocery Giveaway.
Between the Feed Our Kids and GRACE Grocery Giveaway programs, our intention is simple – to meet the food insecurity in our community! Food insecurity occurs when people don’t have enough to eat and are unsure of where their next meal will come from. Tarrant County faces this insecurity with an 18.5% rate; higher than both the statewide average of 13% and the nationwide average of 10.5%.
At GRACE, we aim to ease the burden of others. To learn how you or your organization can help, please contact our Seasonal Programs Coordinator, Deb Ebeling at debeling@GRACEGrapevine.org or 817-690-4136. If you’re ready to dive right in, we currently have spots available as early as next week that need filled! We’d love to hear from you and show you how to be one of our rock stars in the eyes of a child!
