Through a new partnership with Children’s Place in Aiken, S.C., Golden Harvest will provide weekend food to children who have experienced trauma. Children’s Place will also partner with the Food Bank to host a food pantry for families of the children it serves.
Three home-cooked meals daily. Healthy snacks. And now, a backpack full of food for the weekend. That’s what Children’s Place, Inc. in Aiken, S.C. provides for kids like Ryan, who participates in the organization’s therapeutic daycare program.
The Children’s Place childcare program provides children who have experienced trauma with counseling, behavioral and rehabilitative therapy, and educational help. The organization also offers a program for parents to foster parenting skills and increase family stability.
When staff noticed that some children were arriving hungry in the morning, the organization committed to providing more hunger relief services. Research links food insecurity to poor learning outcomes, anxiety, and family instability.
At first, staff offered affected families gift cards to help with food expenses. But soon, a long-term solution came in the form of a grant from the Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood Foundation. Children’s Place reached out to Golden Harvest Food Bank to partner in using the funding to provide new services. The Food Bank’s buying power means dollars can stretch further to provide more meals.
The first step in the partnership is providing Golden Harvest’s BackPack Program, which provides nutritious food for children to eat over the weekend, at Children’s Place. “The grant will help us reach even more families,” said Peggy Ford, executive director at Children’s Place. “We’ll be able to give away BackPacks to every child who attends our program.”
The next step is to start a food pantry for families of the kids at Children’s Place, so that their parents and siblings can also receive enough nutritious food.
This partnership is part of Golden Harvest’s strategic plan and mission to expand our reach and close the meal gap in our community. Forming innovative collaborations that reach more families is a key strategy in this effort.
