COLUMBIA — The Central Missouri Food Bank in collaboration with TimeLine Recruiting kicked-off their annual Food 4 Kids drive Monday and will be accepting child-friendly food items and monetary donations until May 29.
The Food 4 Kids program is one of the few summer feeding programs that caters specifically to children, according to the Central Missouri Food Bank. With school letting out in June, the program serves meals to kids in order to replace the Free Lunch program available during the school year. Over the course of the summer, volunteers aim to serve over 30,000 balanced meals to children in eight different counties.
According to the Food Bank’s statistics, half of the roughly 100,000 people in need within their service areas are children.
Mike DeSantis, marketing coordinator for the Food Bank, says it anticipates an increase in need for programs such as Food 4 Kids. Despite the tough economic times, DeSantis said the Food Bank has also tracked an overall increase in donations.
“I think people appreciate the need for donations, now more than ever," he said. "We hope to get a similar response with the Food 4 Kids program.”
This is the Food Bank’s first partnership with TimeLine Recruiting, a nationwide health care recruiting company.
“We look at this collaboration as a way to reiterate to the local community that we are involved and here to help,” said Aurora Tyler, a spokeswoman for TimeLine Recruiting.
The most needed items are nonperishable, nonrefrigerated products that are high in protein such as plastic jars of peanut butter, individual servings of cereal, granola bars, pop-top pasta meals, juice boxes, dried fruit and nuts, pudding and Jell-O packs.
Food can be dropped off in the bins that will be placed in the lobby of TimeLine Recruiting offices, located at 3220 Bluff Creek Drive, Suite 107. Checks made out to the Central Missouri Food Bank will also be accepted at TimeLine offices. Donations can also be dropped off at the Central Missouri Food Bank's headquarters at 2101 Vandiver Drive.