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A school where 93 percent of the children get free or reduced rate lunches because of income is welcoming a new program paid for by Foster Farms.
Food 4 Thought, a program offered by Harvest Food Bank of San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties, provides free food every other week to the families of children at Campus Park Elementary School in Livingston. The children who qualify for the program must be enrolled in the school's after-school tutoring program and must be needy.
Foster Farms, based in Livingston, is funding the program in the city where its large plant is located.
Merced Sun-Star - Bags of food are ready for children at Campus Park Elementary School in Livingston. The children in the after-school program get free food every other week.
George Solis, principal of Campus Park, said the program has been in existence in Stanislaus County for more than 10 years. Campus Park is the first school in Merced County to benefit from it.
"Stanislaus County Food Bank is providing the food, and Foster Farms pays for it," Solis said.
About 50 children have signed up. Every other week the students get to come into a room and fill a special bag with food to take home to their families.
"Every week it's a different menu -- it's mainly dry food," Solis said.
This week, the bags were topped with potatoes and oranges and filled with dry goods.
"It's obviously not enough food to feed a whole family, but the program does give the family some food they may not be able to afford otherwise," Solis said.
After the first of the year, the Merced County Food Bank will take over the program in the county.
Phyllis Legg, executive director of the local food bank, said the pilot program is just getting started in Merced, but she has high hopes for the future.
The program will eventually expand into more schools in the county.
"This is absolutely a needed program in Merced County," Legg said. "We are hoping that it catches on and goes big, big, big."
Reporter Carol Reiter can be reached at (209) 385-2486 or creiter@mercedsun-star.com.
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