SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane high school students lead the charge to feed hungry children in the 12th annual Big Build.
“I knew the need was out there, I just didn’t know how prevalent it was.” said Caleb Marll, a senior at Mt. Spokane High School about hunger amongst students. He and fellow senior Emily Kramer of Lewis and Clark High School led Second Harvest’s Big Build on Saturday, January 26th . “Hunger is something I can help with,” reflects Emily. “I know I can make a change.”
The students joined more than 400 volunteers at Second Harvest to put together meal kits for children and teenagers at 95 elementary and secondary schools primarily in Spokane and Stevens counties, under Second Harvest’s Bite2Go program.
The program, which provides food for children struggling with hunger for the weekend, is expanding into more secondary schools as the need among teenagers becomes more evident.
Students including Caleb and Emily are working to ensure their classmates have enough nutritious food to focus on school and live healthy, active lives.
The meal kits put together will provide weekend food for elementary students through weekly distributions at their schools. 15,000 kits will feed 3,700 children for a month. Bite2Go packs help take the pressure off families living on the edge of poverty by providing food they are not always able to buy themselves. One in five children in our region struggles with hunger.