Co-Mo Electric Cooperative passed along a $1,549.19 grant to the Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri's Buddy Pack program, on June 16.
The grant, earned through a charitable program of one of Co-Mo's lenders, matches the $1,549.19 the cooperative contributed to the Food Bank and will be used to provide food to children in the cooperative's service territory who might otherwise go hungry.
"One of our founding principles is "Concern for Community,' and for us, that concern is genuine, even more so when it comes to children," said Ken Johnson, the cooperative's chief executive officer and general manager. "We want to make sure that none of our children go hungry."
The funds for the grant came through CoBank, the Colorado-based cooperative bank, and its Sharing Success program. Travis Sappington, Food Bank representative said the funds go a long way in helping to feed local children.
"The Buddy Pack Program is a supplemental food program for hungry kiddos," he said. "One in five children are hungry. When the majority of their food source is at school, this program gets calories to the children when they are away from school on weekends, holidays, and snow days. The children receive their kid-friendly and nutritious Buddy Packs on Fridays."
The CoBank Sharing Success program was started in 2012 to coincide with the International Year of Cooperatives, a worldwide recognition of the role cooperatives have played and continued to play in the betterment of rural communities across the globe. The program was renewed in 2013, 2014 and again in 2015.
Approximately 56,000 students in the Food Bank's service area qualify for free and reduced-priced school meals. For many of them, breakfast and lunch at school offer the only source of reliable nutrition and they are at risk of hunger over the weekend.
"Approximately 209 children are served weekly in Moniteau County," Sappington said. "It costs $180 to sponsor one child for the school year. The Food Bank provides more than 7,400 Buddy Packs weekly."
The grant is just one measure through which Co-Mo has supported the Buddy Pack program over the past five years. The cooperative has a continuing food drive for its members and employees to bring kid-friendly food at either of its offices. Peanut butter is in particularly high demand. Cash donations payable to the food back can also be dropped off at Co-Mo.
For more information on the program, visit sharefoodbringhope.org.