A Boca Helping Hands effort to feed south county children who would go hungry without meals over weekends will get $25,000 if enough people click on an online grant competition.
People can vote up to 10 times a day now through Aug. 25 for the State Farm Neighborhood Assist Feed the Children on Weekends program at http://bit.ly/2vLZOtV.
It’s a Rotary Club of Boca Raton Sunrise initiative and the club qualified to be a finalist, said architect Kenneth J. Hirsch, a former Rotary district governor on the club’s board.
If the club wins the grant money through community clicks, they’ll turn the funds over to Boca Helping Hands. Since 2011, BHH Backpacks program has supplied free food over weekends to 1,200 grade-school children who register in at least nine elementary schools, said Karen Swedenborg, development manager.
The schools are Addison Mizner, Boca Raton, Del Prado, Verde and J.C. Mitchell in Boca, Hammock Pointe and Coral Sunset in West Boca, Citrus Cove in Boynton Beach and Orchard View in Delray Beach.
“We may be adding to that,” she said.
Office Depot Foundation provides the backpacks that are filled with enough food for six meals; breakfast, lunch and dinner for 35 weeks of the school year, Swedenborg said. Each backpack costs $6.01 to fill, she said.
Boca Helping Hands purchases the food that includes juice boxes, cereal and graham crackers, Chef Boyardee or Del Monte food, macaroni and cheese, apple sauce and pudding.
“Thursday nights the Junior League [of Boca Raton] comes over and packs our paletts that go to each of the schools,” Swedenborg said. “We take them to the schools and organizations at each location and sometimes PTAs and teachers pack the backpacks and make sure children who signed up get them. The kids bring them back Monday.”
“It’s a wonderful outpouring for the kids,” she said about the Rotary Club’s effort.
“The Rotary Club of Boca Raton Sunrise applied for the grant and is now on the short list of 200 applicants out of a total of 2,000 [submissions],” Hirsch said. “The top 40 applicants that receive the most votes will each receive a $25,000 grant. Based on the 1.8 million total votes cast last year, it may be necessary to get more than 25,000 votes to win.
“Club member Diane Vasic is a school nurse at Orchard View Elementary and was instrumental in providing the grant details since she has seen firsthand the benefit of the BHH Backpack program,” he added.
“This is a national crisis and not an isolated program,” Hirsch said. “This is a national need. I felt it was a great way to rally our Rotarians for a good cause and let people know what Rotary does.”