BackPack Buddies
2018-2019 School Year
At Bethlehem, we care deeply about the families living in our community. Many families are facing financial struggles that make it hard to consistently have food in the home. In an effort to address that problem, Bethlehem partners with an organization called BackPack Buddies. We collect food at the church and assemble bags each week during the school year with healthy weekend meals for children from food-insecure homes.
Currently, we are providing food for 20 children in the following schools:
Lake Myra Elementary School
The foods we provide are either ready to eat or are only require minimal preparation. Listed below are some examples we are currently sending home:
- Individual Boxes of Cereal
- Individual Packages of Oatmeal
- Fruit Cups, Applesauce
- Crackers Packaged of Any Variety
- Ramen Noodles
- Granola Bars
- Fruit Snacks
- Pudding Cups
- Macaroni and Cheese
- Easy Open Soup/ Pasta
- Juice Boxes
How You Can Help
If you are interested in helping families in our community, we have boxes set up in our Christian Life Center where you can drop donated items. Any brands are acceptable, but we ask that items be individually wrapped for safety. Items containing nuts like peanut butter are also welcomed.
As you shop for your donations please keep in mind that we are trying to keep our snacks as healthy as possible. We want to offer nutritious foods that are easy to prepare and eat.
If you would like to volunteer to help with Backpack Buddies, please click on the button at the top of the page to sign up on the Backpack Buddies calendar.
Rise Against Hunger
An estimated 792.5 million people in the world do not receive enough nutrition to lead a healthy, active lifestyle. For the past several years Bethlehem has partnered with Rise Against Hunger (formerly Stop Hunger Now) to help make a difference in the world. Twice each year, we host packing events, where our church purchases thousands of meals that volunteers bag and pack. Those meals are sent to various areas of our world that are in need. Our Rise Against Hunger Nights are a great way to make impact the world. For more information about Rise Against Hunger please check out their website at the link below, and then mark your calendar to join us for one of our Rise Against Hunger Nights at BBC!
http://www.riseagainsthunger.org/
Join us for our next Rise Against Hunger Night!
Read and Feed
Monday Nights
Bethlehem partners with Read and Feed whose mission is to give low-income elementary school children an appetite for reading by strengthening literacy skills and providing encouragement in a nurturing, neighborhood environment. The concept is to combine a child-friendly atmosphere, books, food, and tutors to motivate children to become confident in their academic skills so they have every opportunity to succeed in adult life.
Statistics show that 88% of children who attend a Read and Feed program have improved reading skills and confidence Teachers report that their discipline improves and they are more likely to do their homework.
Our Read and Feed program partners with Lake Myra Elementary to impact the lives of 24 students. Every Monday evening the children enjoy a healthy meal provided by the InterFaith Food Shuttle. They receive about 40 minutes of actively engaged age-level appropriate small group tutoring based on classroom teacher recommendations and suggestions for success. Read and Feed provides the training and resources for tutors and students.
Volunteer opportunities are available to:
- Serves as a reading mentor
- pick up food from InterFaith Food Shuttle and deliver to the church
- setup and cleanup before and after the program.
Contact the church office for more information or to volunteer. You can find out more about Read and Feed at the link below:
