By Liana Hicks
Thank you to the Albertsons Safeway Foundation and our local Vail Safeway store. Greater Vail Community Resources has been selected again to receive donations toward the foundation’s annual “Nourishing Neighbors” campaign, aimed at ensuring children and seniors in Vail have access to healthy breakfasts. During the month of September, Vail Safeway customers will have the opportunity to donate money as they check out. The money later will be distributed to ReSources Vail Food Bank (RVFB) and used to purchase breakfast items to be placed in the nutritional “Weekend Food Backpack Program” for eligible students in the Vail Unified School District (VUSD). Vail neighbors can help nourish kids by supporting this campaign every time they shop.
In conjunction with VUSD and Saint Rita in the Desert Catholic Church, RVFB fights hunger by supporting meal distribution programs targeting both schools and seniors. Together, we are making Vail a better place for our community to grow.
We’re excited and are grateful to the Albertson Safeway Foundation’s Nourishing Neighbors initiative for their ongoing commitment to fighting food insecurity. The susceptible students are those most affected by the achievement gap and poor academic results that can have lasting negative effects. Many children depend on school for most of their weekday nutrition. This is why ReSources Vail Food Bank has focused on feeding students in the school.
Additionally, student hunger does not take off for the weekend, hence the creation of the Weekend Food Backpack Program. Modeled after the Little Rock, Arkansas program created in 1995, the ReSources back pack program has been in service since 2013. This program provides nutritionally balanced, non-perishable meals. With the help of the VUSD, the Backpack program sends food home discreetly on Fridays to ensure students are nourished and ready for the new week.
The Resources Vail Food Bank goal is to provide more than 200 Weekend Food Backpack bags per week. The foundation’s Nourishing Neighbors initiative will increase our ability to ensure healthy breakfasts are part of the back pack program and your generous donations to the campaign during the month of September will help us meet our goal.
Our community can continue to make an impact on kids facing hunger in our neighborhoods. Your donations during the month of September at Vail Safeway will help ReSources provide the breakfast that each kid deserves to start the day.
Every child deserves a healthy breakfast every day. “Feed our Kids and Fuel our Future.”
To learn more about the work of Greater Vail Community Resources, visit: www.resourcesvail.org
As a member of the community Liana Hicks, Operations Manager for Resources Vail Food Bank is committed to participating in Albertsons Safeway Foundation initiative.
