Emery Caring for Kids gears up for another school year and are looking for donations to help assist children with meal kits in the Emery County area. Castle Country Radio spoke over the phone with Coordinator, Lindsey Oman to discuss all the details.

“So ours runs basically the same as Carbon. We are given a number from counselors from our schools, its kept very private, so even I’m not actually given names of kids, I’m only given how many numbers of students each school needs. Then we pack kits here in Castle Dale and then our school counselors and I deliver each Friday to the schools and then there is a school representative that hands out the kits,” explained Oman. Right now, the organization’s main concern is obtaining enough donations each week because there is a larger number of kids that need to be served this year.

There are certain items that the group is looking for to put in the weekly meal kits. “Most common items we use are the microwavable mac n’ cheese, microwavable Top Ramen or the Chef Boyardee cups, oatmeal, cereal, granola bars, fruit snacks, any individually wrapped snacks. We also use any kind of breakfast bar, fruit cups, apple sauces, anything like that that we can put in the kit. We do like to keep the items specific so we do post them on our Facebook just so we have a certain way of packing those kits to make sure that each kit is getting certain items,” said Oman. Organizers want to make sure that all items can be easily prepared by younger students when they are at home.

Donated items can be delivered to several drop-off points as Oman explains, “Emery County has a few drop-off spots, Magnuson Lumber in Castle Dale, Tyler Jeffs Insurance in Castle Dale, Desert View Federal Credit Union in Ferron and in Huntington, JN Auto and Emery Aquatic Center, and USU Extension Office at the courthouse in Castle Dale.” All food donations are accepted at these locations Monday through Friday, with the exception of Magnuson Lumber and JN Auto who are open on Saturdays.

If you are unable to make food donations but would like to help with the cause you can make a monetary donation. “So we have a Venmo account, Emery Caring for Kids and then we also can do cash donations from Eastern Utah Community Credit Union has an account set up for us that you can just take directly in there. Just let them know that you want it in the Emery County account or the Carbon County account, depending on which one you are wanting to donate to,” stated Oman.

Anyone interested in the Emery Caring for Kids program can learn more by visiting their Facebook page.