MUSKEGON, Mich — Since 2012, the Muskegon County Kids Food Basket has been helping to serve sack meals to Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School in Muskegon Heights - and their need is growing according to Director of Engagement, Equality and Inclusion Rodney Savage.
"So we started serving 389 children right there in Muskegon Heights at one school," Savage told us. "And currently, we're serving about 1800 Healthy sack suppers the children out of seven schools right now.
Because of that growth, Rodney and the volunteers here at the KFB say they are looking to move to a bigger space.
"We've got children in schools on our waiting list," Savage said. "So until we can expand our capacity to grow and scale, we're not going to be able to meet that need and touch those the lives of those children.
Right now - they estimate they're meeting 11% of the potential need in the area. They want to add services too - including providing nutrition education. To keep meeting those needs though, they say they need more room than what they have now. But Rodney said you can see the work is working – and that's the ultimate goal.
"We're hearing that the work works," he said. "We're hearing that children who know where their next meal is coming from, it works. We're hearing that there are less truancy, there are less in-school suspensions, we're hearing that the work works, and especially when they get that sack supper, they look at the decorated bags, and then that's that child know that there's a community that cares about them, that gives them hope.
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