Here’s a story to warm your hearts during this cold winter. We wanted to share with you this article about a Chicago-area suburban school that sent home more than 7,000 meals for children for the winter vacation. In Program Distributes Free Food While School is Out, the Lake County News Sun reported that Waukegan Community School District 60 s staff and community volunteers loaded cars one Saturday morning before winter break with two weeks’ worth of breakfasts, lunches and snacks for more than 700 students.

What a great testament showing how schools are working together with their communities to feed hungry children. We are proud that E S Foods was part of this effort by providing shelf-stable Multi Day Meal Kits to these families.

According to Cheryl Pratt, our Regional Sales Director, the need was so great and so welcome that despite a pick up time from 9am to 3pm, the 7,000 meals were distributed in just two hours. She said the cars started lining up two hours before and wrapped around the building. Even Santa made an appearance to help distribute meals. The district is now gearing up for Spring Break and we’ll be providing 900 cases Multi Day Meal Kits of over 9000 meals.

While the Waukegan District 60 is a CEP school district, they pay for the program without funding from the state. Though not required, the district continues to distribute breakfasts and lunches during winter and spring breaks, as well as making provisions during much of the summer.