As many of our area students return to school, I wanted to share some Buddy Bags fun facts from the Fall semester!
Thanks to Buddy Bags, 288 students at six elementary schools were provided weekend food each week, September - December! And 4,032 Buddy Bags were distributed at Elwood Haynes, Pettit Park, Sycamore, Taylor, Northwestern, and Howard Elementary Schools!
We had 179 volunteers came together to pack and deliver Buddy Bags each week! This included volunteers from many organizations and walks of life, including: our local retired friends and high school and college students; Rotary Club of Kokomo; Boy Scouts of America - Sagamore Council; Community Howard Regional Health; StarPlus Energy; Indiana University Kokomo; First Farmers Bank & Trust; The Wyman Group; Kokomo Leadership Academy; Duke Energy; and BMO.
This is a great opportunity for some team bonding while giving back to our great community! We're looking forward to welcoming more volunteers during the Spring semester!
What is the Buddy Bags program?
Buddy Bags provides weekend food free of charge to enrolled students at local elementary schools, but we can’t do it alone! It takes collaboration between local schools, organizations, Food Finders food bank, and community members like you! We currently provide Buddy Bags for students at six elementary schools across three school corporations - Kokomo, Northwestern, and Taylor.
How can I volunteer with Buddy Bags?
Buddy Bags packing takes place on Wednesdays from 12-1 p.m., and Buddy Bags delivery is on Thursday mornings from 9-11 a.m. The staff at each school then distribute the Buddy Bags to enrolled students to take home on Fridays.
We’ve found that 5-12 volunteers packing on Wednesdays and 5-10 people helping with Thursday’s deliveries works best; however, we're happy to accommodate groups of varying sizes! You can sign up to volunteer on your own, or you can sign up with co-workers, friends, family, etc.
We often see organizations sign up their team of employees to volunteer together and get a little team bonding while giving back to our community through volunteerism. You can sign up to volunteer at https://app.initlive.com/web-admin/app/#/join-party?k=ivlszdcfee5gt3
We’re always looking for more volunteers to drive our trailer full of Buddy Bags on delivery days! If you have experience driving a trailer and would be willing to drive the Buddy Bags trailer, hooked up to your vehicle, on a delivery day, please reach out to Director of Community Impact & Engagement Morgan Quinn at mquinn@howardandtiptonunitedway.org to discuss more details.
How can I make a financial contribution to Buddy Bags?
You can make an online donation through our website — https://www.howardandtiptonunitedway.org/buddy-bags — or by mailing your contribution to our office, 125 N. Buckeye St. Kokomo, IN 46901. Please be sure to include "Buddy Bags" in the memo line of the check or on a note in the same envelope.
Help us advocate for the 4,720+ children in Howard and Tipton counties who are food insecure by sharing this information with your friends, family, co-workers, and others. Let’s work together to help the children in our community! 🙂