Wish Farms was honored to be a part of the Kiwanis Club of Brandon’s “Smile Club” delivery this month. Along with other goods, like bread, cereal, and spaghetti o’s, students took home fresh Wish Farms blackberries.
This is the 5th year that the Kiwanis Club of Brandon has hosted the Smile Club special event. Every other Friday, these carefully packed take-home bags are put together by a group of volunteers and hand-delivered to classrooms 37 Fridays a year.
7,400 pre-packaged bags of durable products are put together by Feeding Tampa Bay. Mosaic is a large partner in the Smile Club project as well – they provide a yearly grant that is used to acquire the pre-packaged food from Feeding Tampa Bay, and they donate reusable tote bags to be donated to families. These partnerships, and selfless efforts by the Mosaic, Feeding Tampa Bay, and Kiwanis Club volunteers provides 20,000 total meals for more than 200 Bay area students.
95% of students at this elementary school are part of the free breakfast and lunch program. So, what do these kids eat on the weekends when they are not at school? That is the problem that the Kiwanis Club of Brandon is determined to solve. The weekly backpack Smile Club program is filling part of that void. Every student who receives this Friday donation looks forward to their classroom drop-off, and they warmly welcome volunteers. They express their gratitude by saying thank you and writing thank you notes.
They call this program the “Smile Club,” not only because of the smiles you create for the children, but because of the smiles you’ll have yourself by knowing you have helped a deserving child through the weekend by providing them with the food and nutrients they need.
Wish Farms has donated fresh strawberries, blueberries and blackberries to the Smile Club program for 2 years. This month, we donated 20 flats of fresh blackberries. This donation is part of a bigger picture, and it’s a step toward ending hunger for these sweet students.
