Featured Grant Story: Junior League of Lubbock

What is the Junior League of Lubbock?

The Junior League of Lubbock is an organization of women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women and improving the community through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Its purpose is exclusively education and charitable.

According to Feeding America, 27.1% of children in Texas are food insecure, meaning that they don’t know where their next meal will be coming from. Lubbock ISD (LISD) elementary schools have a specific student population that has been identified as low socioeconomic and food insecure.

Established in 2006, the Food2Kids program alleviates this food insecurity for South Plains students. Food2Kids works with LISD elementary schools to provide snacks to children identified by school staff members as living in a food insecure household. Every week dozens of Junior League of Lubbock volunteers assemble sacks of food to be sent home with these students on Fridays.

In 2016-2017 school year, Food2Kids prepared and distributed more than 64,000 food sacks to 1,600 students at 23 LISD elementary school campuses. The Food2Kids program has already distributed 15,094 sacks to 1,747 LISD students for the 2018-2019 school year, according to data from October 2018.

Junior League of Lubbock in Action

The Junior League of Lubbock regularly receives letters from students and parents who receive Food2Kids sacks each week. These letters shared with the Junior League of Lubbock show how appreciative students and families are of the Food2Kids program.

The Junior League of Lubbock received the letter below from an elementary student last spring.

What Hunger Means to Me: Many people face hunger in Texas. Lubbock, in my opinion, has the most. I am one of those kids. I have faced food insecurity for 11 years. This year my family has been doing better. My family has been in situations where we have just beans to eat for the week. School meals help for week days. Over the weekend, I have to eat a lot of cereal or candy. It is hard but I know that a blessing is coming soon when I receive my Food2Kids sack. Food is important for all people. So please keep giving food to someone in need because food isn’t always there.

To learn more about the Junior League of Lubbock, please visit them online at www.jllubbock.com, or on Facebook.