# 87. Food

It’s really just a rough sketch but it’s not too bad.

I was thinking today about how awesome it was as a kid to have snow days although to get almost a whole week off well that never happened to me. Yet, although I have many fond memories of snow days as a kid today I have a heavy heart. It’s sad to think that some kids aren’t as excited to have snow days and not go to school. Not that they really want to be in class but because school is the major provider if not the only provider of food for them, which leads me to the topic of my theme of the day:  Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma.

Here’s a few interesting fact you might not know about our regional food bank:

·         500,000 Oklahomans are at risk of hunger every day  including 1 in every 5 children in the state

·         The food bank helps feed 77,000 Oklahomans each week

·         96% of all donations go to providing food to the hungry

·         8% of donated food go to the homeless while 70% go to the working core (they are not unemployed)

·         For every $1 donated, the Regional Food Bank provides seven meals

·         The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma has more volunteers on average than any other food bank in the country! (There are 205 food banks nationally)

·         On average 1 volunteer is worth $14 an hour to the food bank

·         The slowest times of the year for volunteers is in May and August

·         Their staff force is only 75 people strong (40 of which work on distributing the food)

·         99% of all food from the food bank are delivered by trucks owned and operated by the food bank.

·         During fiscal year 2010, the Regional Food Bank distributed 36.5 million pounds of food and products to hungry Oklahomans in 53 central and western counties

Backpacks for kids Program:

One of the best parts about our food bank. The program started in 2003 when several teachers in inner city elementary school noticed a trend in certain students as being inattentive and sluggish. One boy passed out right before the lunch bell and it was confirmed as the result of having nothing to eat since his school lunch the previous Friday. Another child admitted to having nothing but a single Oscar mire wiener over the weekend. The backpack for kids program provides these students with a backpack full of needed nutritional food every Friday so that they have something to eat over the weekend. On Monday the students return the backpacks and volunteers refill them during the week to be redistributed. To insure the kids get nutritious meals the food in the back packs are bought, not donated. The program serves 305 elementary schools in 42 counties across central and western Oklahoma, providing backpacks to nearly 8,000 chronically hungry children each week during the 2009-2010 school year.

For more information you can visit the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma's website (you can even sign up to volunteer on there!) Not only were schools forced to close this week but also our Regional Food Bank which could possibly lead to some of those children not getting their food backpacks.