We will fund part of it, but we are unable to fund all of it. Our current program needs are growing rapidly. We’re sending out 550 weekend food bags this year, up from 400 only two years ago. That’s a 37% increase in only two years. That said, we are going to fund a partial match of the Kinderhaven grant out of our operating budget in the amount of $60,000 per year, which is about a third of the total needed. An anonymous donor has also agreed to donate $100,000, or $50,000 for each year.

It is the challenge of living in a resort community. The federal calculation for free and reduced price school breakfasts and lunches leaves hundreds of our children from families of limited means unable to enjoy nourishing meals while at school. Why is this? The cost of living here is unique, due to our housing costs. Bonner County ranks 25th in the state in household income but 4th in the state in housing costs. The average two bedroom rental unit in our county is now over $16,000 per year. A single parent median income  here is slightly over $31,000 gross, or about $26,000 net after taxes. That’s means rent is about 60% of that parent’s take home pay. Then you add food, medicine and health care costs, car payments, and utilities.  The numbers just don’t work. Even if that parent were able to find a rental for only $12,000 per year, that is still 46% of their take home pay, far over federal guidelines. And this is for the medium income. Half of our households make less than the medium.  If this parent had two children in elementary school, the cost for school breakfasts and lunches each week would be over $58 per week. This is why hundreds of kids in our school district fall through the cracks, unable to pay for school meals.

Based on numbers provided by the school district this program will provide assistance to families who are in the bottom half of household incomes in the county and who do not qualify for federal aid. We estimate the program will result in funding for food for over four hundred children.

No, they will pay the same reduced amount as the federal program reduced amount, which is a very manageable 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch. Free meals are only provided in the federal program to students in the very lowest income families.

The program will be managed by the child nutrition office of Lake Pend Oreille School District, using the same system currently in place to oversee the federal meal subsidies. The school district will bill Food For Our Children monthly and Food For Our Children will pay the district directly.

The board of directors of Food For Our Children has already begun the process of targeting potential major charitable organizations, both locally and nationwide, who have the potential to replace the Kinderhaven grant in the future, so that this transformational program could continue.

No, 100% of your donation will go to pay for food for school meals. Not one penny will be used for our expenses, and we have no employees that we pay wages or salaries to.