Let's Help Feed the Hungry

Update!
I just took the donations from everyone to Dance With Melody in Middletown  one box 4 bags and $60 worth of Shop Rite gift cards!
thanks to all who gave!  this should help them to fill the back packs up for the long thanksgiving weekend.
I also know that many of you couldn't give at this time due to other charities or extra holiday expenditures so  please know this is an ongoing thing that you can donate to anytime just read below.
Thanks again!      Love, Cassie

 
Hey peeps!  I stumbled upon a really great local charity that could really use our help! It's called The Backpack Crew 
You can also find them on Facebook too. Read below some excerpts from The Patch Article I found about this charity:

Suzanne Dice runs a program called ”The Backpack Crew,”  Each backpack, which Dice states numbers around twenty-five currently, is filled with enough food for each family to survive over the weekend with. It’s a program that is done anonymously, to protect the pride of struggling families affected by Superstorm Sandy in one Middletown school system..
There are still families who are essentially homeless two years later from Sandy, and as time passes, are being overlooked and pushed to the back burner of people’s thoughts and concerns.
 Thinking of how humiliating it might be for a child to carry food from the school back to home, in front of all of their not-so-understanding peers, Dice came up with an anonymous system. The nurse of the unnamed elementary school is the only person with the list of families who have signed up to received free food every weekend.
Families that sign up with the program list the number and ages of members in their household, and also if there are any food allergies, but otherwise Dice says she chooses general food products that are healthy, and she packs enough food for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks to last a family two days.
They unload the backpacks at the nurse’s office early Friday mornings. Students are then able to retrieve their numbered backpack, and bring food home to their families without anyone ever knowing or having the chance to shame or taunt the student and family needing assistance. The backpacks are then simply dropped back in the nurse’s office quietly and privately by the student, without other kids at school noticing and having the chance to possibly tease or ridicule the student, in the sometimes cruel and taunting ways that kids bully one another.
“Everyone has a responsibility to help one another, if you are able to. There’s no excuse not to help your neighbors, and members of your own community.” Dice says.
She hopes to expand the Backpack Crew to other schools in the area, and even beyond in the future. For now, word of mouth is all she can wish for to keep the program running in the one elementary school, with food donations from the public.

So with this in mind I am going to be collecting needed items for this program from Now until Saturday November 22. This way they will have plenty to pack for the families to cover the long holiday weekend. You can drop them off at my house or bring to any event.

Below is a list of needed items, be sure they have a good shelf life and NO GLASS please. There is also a link for monetary donations.

Needed Items:
* granola bars
* mac and cheese
* soup
* small cereal boxes
* small plastic jars of peanut butter (most needed item)
* crackers
* spaghetti and sauce (no glass jars please)
* instant oatmeal packets
* small cans of fruit
Also Gift Cards to local grocery stores:  Acme, Shop Rite, Wegmans, Stop and Shop, Costco or Foodtown

OR

For online donations via Pay Pal:   https://www.formstack.com/forms/?1713717-Vod1nJM3xV

I know I could count on you all in the past so am looking forward to your help now!

With Love and in the Light, Cassie