Salad Day Today, Three Salads, $2.50, $2.67 , $2.50. Plus A Peek At The Back Pack Plan For Kids, Pantry And School Together

Today, Sarah requests salad support for the food pantry. Three popular salads for pantry families, which are off the shelves and very much wanted, are Blue Cheese, $2.67, Thousand Island, $2.50, and Ranch Salad, $2.50.

Reflecting on the past, I visited the school to see how the program was going. It was heartwarming to see all those bags being stuffed with food we sent, a testament to your past invaluable contributions. We are truly grateful for your support and hope we can count on you again.

First, today’s food request, apart from backing the sacks:

Here they are, both on the Cambridge Food Pantry Wish list:

Kraft Classic Ranch Salad Dressing (16 fl oz Bottle), $2.50.

Wish-Bone Chunky Blue Cheese Salad Dressing, 15 Fl. Oz, $2.67.

Light Thousand Island Salad Dressing, 15 Fl oz, $2.50.

Please help send some salads if you can. And thanks again for the Thanksgiving Drive-Three support program.

The farm families are prominent on salads. The kids think the salads are dull without dressing. Something else the pantries struggle to keep on the shelves is adding healthy foods to the kid’s diet and filling empty stomachs.

The Back Pack program is a collaborative project between the Cambridge Food Pantry and Cambridge Central School. The community is very much into helping with food insecurity. Many Cambridge Pantry volunteers tell me they know what it is like to be hungry as a child.

The school identifies children needing food support, particularly during the challenging weekends, and the pantry steps in to provide a ‘backpack’ to bridge the gap. They are very discreet about it.

This program, partially funded by the state, significantly improves the lives of these children.

Five or six volunteers—Maria is one—come together at the school to get the backs and mark them up. There are no real names on the packs, just numbers, and they are distributed to the parents at the end of the Friday school day.

The state partially funds the program, but the pantry has little say in what it receives. Some sweets, energy foods, and snacks are included, which makes a huge difference for the kids in those families.