Food For Our Children receives generous grant from Kinderhaven Foundation
KATHY HUBBARD / Contributing Writer | Bonner County Daily Bee | UPDATED 3 months, 1 week AGO
At left, Betsy Delessio, principal at Farmin Stidwell and Food For Our Children President, Dennis Pence, pose with the generous check Kinderhaven Foundation has donated to help provide school lunches to LPOSD elementary schools for the next two years.
The financial problems many Americans face today are equally, if not more challenging, to families in Bonner County. The cost of rent, utilities, car payments, health insurance, and food often surpass the income of hard working, low income families.
With food insecurity top-of-mind, the Kinderhaven Foundation has partnered with Food For Our Children (FFOC) to provide affordable school meals to students from the lowest 50 percent of household incomes in the Lake Pend Oreille School District. Kinderhaven Foundation has pledged a two-year grant at $186,00 per year for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years. FFOC will match this grant for a grand total of $744,000.
Utilizing the same system currently in place to oversee federal meal subsidies, the program will be managed by the child nutrition office of LPOSD. The program is estimated to provide nutritious meals to over four hundred children every school day.
“Our funds will match about one third of this extraordinary and most generous grant out of our operating budget,” Founder Dennis Pence said. “We have been fortunate to have an anonymous donor who has agreed to donate a total of $100,000, but we need to raise the rest. Our goal is to raise $50,000 for the 2026-27 school year by the end of December. Will you help us?”
To make a donation by credit card go to foodforourchildren.org. Mail a check to Food For Our Children, P.O. Box 1867, Sandpoint, ID 83864.
“Our current weekend food bag program needs are growing rapidly. Two years ago, we were sending out free weekend meals to 400 children, this year its 550 children – a 37 percent increase,” Pence said. “Providing low cost breakfasts and lunches during the school year will be a big help to families who are paying roughly 60 percent of their take home pay on housing.”
Food For Our Children’s mission is to eliminate childhood hunger in Bonner County. Their website says, “We strongly believe that hunger should not be a factor in determining a child’s future.”