Every other week on NHPR, we like to highlight a local non-profit that’s providing a great service for the Granite State. On this week’s episode of Give Back New Hampshire, we’ll focus on Fueled by Kids, a nonprofit organization founded by students to fight childhood hunger. Fueled by Kids serves over 900 fellow students in the Manchester School District.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Jill Russell: My name is Jill Russell. I am a board member at Fueled by Kids. I've been part of the organization since it started in 2016.
Brie Klicker: My name is Brie Klicker and I'm also a board member at Fueled by Kids, and I've been a part of the organization for four years.
Jill Russell: Basically Fueled by Kids, we pack bags for kids who are food insecure in Manchester. We currently provide for over 21 schools and every week it's over a thousand bags.
Brie Klicker: On Thursdays, volunteers come and pack 1,125 bags, and then when they're all packed, they're delivered to the schools for kids who need them.
Jill Russell: We really aim to get rid of the 67 hour gap between when kids will get free, or reduced lunch on Friday and free breakfast on Monday.
Jill Russell: This really is close to our hearts because it's people our age. We provide food from kindergarten to 12th grade, and these could be kids that will stay on the list throughout all of their school career.
Brie Klicker: A big part of the food we pack is making sure it's consistent so kids know what to expect each week. So we pack apples, carrots, pudding. In this way, it's food that kids know how to work with versus other canned food, which is beans or sardines something less appealing to kids.
Jill Russell: Along with the consistency, it's also food that we ourselves like. This food is sold in our cafeteria like Uncrustables, we all love them. So this is very important to us that they are kids like us.
Jill Russell: I really hope to achieve reaching more kids to reach more schools in Manchester or to expand to different towns would be amazing.
Brie Klicker: Another part of reaching that goal is having the amount of volunteers to pack the bags needed.
Jill Russell: Anybody can volunteer. It's greatly appreciated. We have young kids say in Girl Scouts or brought with their families, to my grandma and grandpa actually come and help out. So really any age could come and it's so greatly appreciated.
Brie Klicker: Luckily since Fueled by Kids is so close to our high school, a lot of high schoolers come down.
Jill Russell: Yeah. And we recently started a Fueled by Kids club at our school, which really has helped to bring kids our age down to learn about this and help out people directly in our community.
Jill Russell: Although volunteers are very necessary every week packing the bags is almost $6,000, so we really rely on sponsors and donations from everybody to help fund this cause. 100% of all of our donations go directly to buying the food, so your donations really do make an impact on kids in Manchester.
