BOZEMAN — The Gallatin Valley Food Bank is searching for local food distributors to help supply nutritious, kid-friendly snacks for the Healthy KidsPack Program.
“It’s really a triple-win scenario," explained HRDC's Donavan Glasgow. "We get to provide some really great healthy, high-quality snacks and food to kiddos, the local Montana producers and farmers get an extra source of revenue from us, and kids in our program get the chance to taste an access through our local food system, which they might not have had the opportunity to do so otherwise.”
Each KidsPack bag contains items like fruit, soup, juice, and other shelf-stable snacks, which are distributed to 31 different schools in Gallatin-Jefferson-Madison Counties.
“One in five kids in Montana are food insecure or live in food-insecure households," Glasgow added. "For those children, weekends can be an especially hard time. They don’t have access to school meals. What Healthy KidsPack does is we provide free bags of nutritious, kid-friendly foods to students across southwest Montana at the end of each week for the weekend. It’s a really important program. Kids come back to school on Monday with full bellies, and they’re ready to learn.”
If you or someone you know is interested in providing Montana-made food items, all you have to do is call the food bank and ask for Donavan Glasgow or email KidsPack@thehrdc.org.
If you’re interested in having your child join the KidsPack Program, there are a few different ways to do so.
“They can contact their school’s front office and the school will fill out a very easy form," Glassgow explained. "There are no income or eligibility requirements. The program is open to anyone who needs it. They can also go to our website gallatinvalleyfoodbank.org, and there’s a childhood nutrition tab on our website with a signup sheet online for Belgrade and Bozeman school districts.”
The Gallatin Valley Food Bank is always searching for volunteers to help pack snack bags for the Healthy KidsPack Program. To sign up, visit their website and click on ‘Give Help.’
