Plainfield Family Pack Program

Plainfield Family Pack Program

The City of Plainfield is a proud participant of the Family Food Pack Program hosted by the Community Foodbank of New Jersey. In 2016, United Way of Greater Union County brought together the Plainfield Board of Education and the Food Bank for a lasting collaboration to provide meals for families in need as a way to help address food insecurity.

WHAT IS THE FAMILY FOOD PACK PROGRAM?

During weekdays, low income children rely on free school meals, but weekend food resources may be limited. In order to be proactive in meeting this important need, the Family Pack Program in Plainfield provides back packs full of supplemental, nutritious food for food insecure families with children in the Plainfield public school system. This helps ensure that children and their families will have food over the weekend and return to school on Monday ready to learn.

Currently, the program serves the following schools:

• Cedarbrook Elementary School

• Charles H. Stillman Elementary School

• Emerson Elementary School

• Evergreen Elementary School

• Washington Community School

To date, over 500 Plainfield children and families have been served. BUT not every child in Plainfield currently has access to food on weekends or to this program. There are only five schools in the Plainfield District who participate in the program and we know the need is much greater at each of these schools and in the other six elementary and middle schools currently not in the program.

HOW IT WORKS

Each Friday or end of week; a bus and driver from the Plainfield School District and a staff member from the Plainfield Family Success Center pick up backpacks full of food from the Community Foodbank of New Jersey located in Hillside. The staff then drop off the Family Food Packs at the five schools. School personnel discreetly distribute the backpacks to families that have applied for the program. This partnership makes the Foodbank responsible to procure and provide the food items while the Plainfield Family Success Center conducts the distribution.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

You can help children in the City of Plainfield to receive the proper nutrition they need. If you or your company/organization are interested in volunteering to help transport goods from Hillside to Plainfield or to help distribute the food packs to schools locally, please contact us at Tania.Guaman@uwguc.org.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS PROGRAM

• Studies have shown greater gains in both reading and math for children that live in food secure household

• Food-secure children and teenagers have been shown to miss school less frequently, and are less likely to repeat a grade than food-secure children

• Food security has been shown to increase a child’s chances of graduating from high school

• Growing up food-secure has consequences even beyond K-12 education. Research shows that workers who do not experience hunger as children are better prepared physically, mentally, emotionally and socially to perform effectively in the contemporary workforce.

To learn more about the effects of food insecurity on children’s education, see the Too Hungry to Learn: Food Insecurity and School Readiness by the Children’s Healthwatch.