I learned of the End 68 Hours of Hunger program back in October of 2014 while having lunch with a friend. She mentioned the program was attempted to launch in Newmarket NH a few times without success. I asked her to tell me more about the program.
End 68 Hours of Hunger is a private, not-for-profit, effort to confront the approximately 68 hours of hunger that some school children experience between the free lunch they receive in school on Friday afternoon and the free breakfast they receive in school on Monday morning. The program is 100% made up of volunteers and 100% of funds go towards the purchase of foods.
These children are food insecure children in our communities whose families perhaps do not have the monies or means to support the children as they would like to or there may be other circumstances preventing the support.
When I learned of the program, I knew I had to get this off the ground in my community. Why? because I was one of these children for about 5 years of my childhood. I was also a teen mom and with the support of my children's father, we made it but it wasn't easy. This program would have helped greatly during our early years of parenthood. There are children who need the support for a variety of reasons and this really hit home for me.
With the help of that friend from lunch and my incredibly supportive husband, along with the Newmarket Community Church who allows us to house our program at their Thrift Store in a 100 square foot room, we launched End 68 Hours of Hunger Newmarket in February 2015. We provide backpacks on a weekly basis to 27 food insecure children. In these backpacks are meals containing 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches, 3 dinners, snacks, fresh fruit, and sometimes a donated surprise and we could not do this without the help from our amazing volunteers and the support of our wondrous community.
We have food drop off locations around our town which has a population total of approx. 9,300. My husband and I have lived in this quaint New England town for 11 years. Our town folk have been incredibly supportive with food drives, monetary donations, school supplies donations etc.
End 68 Hours of Hunger is in 35 communities across the country but this is why End 68 Hours of Hunger Newmarket is so meaningful to me.
http://end68hoursofhunger.org/newmarket-nh/
Review from #MyGivingStory