Fort Yuma and Food Bank team up for Dateland School
Posted by Kelly Boyd
Fort Yuma Rotary got another chance to help out their favorite school again.
With the help of a District Simplified Grant that Fort Yuma member and Yuma Community Food Bank Director Ronna Stubbs submitted, Fort Yuma will be able to deliver 150 backpacks every Friday for the rest of the school year. That is a total of 33 weeks. These backpacks are filled with approximately 11 pounds of food each. That is approximately 1,500 pounds of food. Some of the items include granola bars, juice, fruits & veggies, milk and cereal. Yuma Catholic High and Yuma High Interact Clubs helped pack the bags. This is a wonderful way for Interact to partner with their sponsor clubs. District Governor, Ernie Montagne, and his wife Sally were able to join us in the first delivery. They were very impressed with the school and the children. Sally even said she would like to move closer just so she can help with that school! Each and every child in the school got a back pack with their own name and the Rotary emblem on it. The program is designed to help supplement the children’s nutritional needs through the weekend when other sources such as school meals are not available. The Pack-a-Snack program will help relieve hunger while instilling health and nutritional education to the most vulnerable population in the East County. Blue Cross Blue Shield also provided a grant to the Yuma Community Food Bank to support 6 Snack-a-Pack programs in Yuma County and The Food Bank allocated a portion of those funds to help support the Dateland Project. The children were so excited when we arrived with the backpacks. They even had thank you cards already drawn up and ready for us when we arrived. Apparently they couldn’t wait to get home from their very long bus ride that day to dig in. Rumor has it that several kids had the tomatoes all eaten by the time they got home! President Keith would like to thank everyone involved in this project and had this to say. “You have to wonder if the kids will eventually get used to the deliveries and take them for granted but from what I saw that day, my thought is that they won’t. The kids at Dateland School have been very grateful for all of our hard work there. Fort Yuma is making a huge impact at a small school and even more importantly, a small community. You can be very proud of the time you give to Rotary and the results from your hard work and dedication.”