Emery Caring for Kids is preparing for the upcoming school district’s Holiday Breaks and is currently in the process of gathering food donations for children’s meal kits. Castle Country Radio spoke over the telephone with Coordinator, Lindsey Oman about what they are doing to prepare for the school break.
Emery Caring for kids have been doing really well this year, they did have a slow start at the beginning of the year but donations have picked up. “We have 88 kids and we have had a few local organizations and schools do some food drives for us. So we’ve been really lucky that way. We were struggling at first with donations but everybody stepped up and we’ve actually been doing really well,” said Oman. The organization would not be able to assist children with meals if it wasn’t for help from community members. It’s because of them that Emery Caring for Kids is such a successful food program.
The organization runs their donations for holiday breaks differently than the normal weekend food kits. “Holidays are different we change up the kits a little bit and instead of us packing them and doing everything in a smaller scale, we build bigger kits for the long holiday break. What we do is we create a list, you can sign up for a kit for each child, and then you build them and drop them off and then we have the counselors and myself deliver those,” said Oman. The donation to the child is anonymous as the organization doesn’t get names of the students, just a number of those who are in need of food kits.
If you would like to donate a kit, you’re asked to put the food items in a sturdy/reusable bag so the child can easily carry it home. Oman explains what items are needed in each holiday meal kit, “So for our Thanksgiving kits for one child, it’s a box of cereal, a jar of peanut butter, a jar of jelly, a loaf of bread, two of the tuna and crackers kits, four fruit cups, five dinners which can be top ramen, mac and cheese, Chef Boyardee cups, kind of whatever is preference to you to purchase, and then six individually wrapped snacks.” Once you have put the items together in a bag, you then are urged to deliver it to Magnuson Lumber in Castle Dale by close of business on Monday, Nov. 21.
The items that will be needed for the long Christmas Break will be posted on the Emery Caring for Kids Facebook page around Dec. 1. This will allow folks enough time to gather the food needed for the long Christmas holiday meal kits. If you are unable to sponsor a meal kit but would like to make a monetary donation towards the cause its quite easy as Oman explains, “So there’s two really great ways, one is you can go to Eastern Utah Community Credit Union, give them our name and they can transfer that into our account, or we do have a Venmo which is at Emery Caring for Kids.”
To learn more about the Emery Caring for Kids program be sure to visit their Facebook page for the latest news and updates.