Members of the Ann Visger Preparatory Academy Fifth Grade Student Council spent a day of their mid-winter break recently tackling the issue of hunger in their community. The students visited Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan to learn about food insecurity in the Detroit area and pack “crockpot kits” for local families in need.
These admirable students took time away from their vacation to support their neighbors and take the fight against hunger into their own hands, said Adrian Lewis, East Detroit Meijer Market Director.
The students were able to pack 800 “crockpot kits” with the help of Detroit Lions cornerback Darius Slay, cheerleaders and mascot Roary, as well as members of the Detroit Meijer team and Campbell’s. The volunteers filled the kits with ingredients like canned peaches, green beans, diced tomatoes and garbanzo beans as well as brown rice. The kits will be handed out to families through Gleaners’ School Food Mobile program, which brings mobile food pantries to low-income schools. Along with the kits, families will receive recipe cards instructing them how to use the ingredients to cook healthy and hearty meals like chicken and rice soup. The food bank’s School Food Mobile program provides nutritious, healthy food to students and families facing food insecurity at schools across the five counties it serves: Livingston, Oakland, Wayne, Monroe and Macomb.
Campbell’s also donated 5,000 cans of Campbell’s Chunky soup to Gleaners to help fill the kits.