‘Help 4 Kids’ in the Pee Dee is giving back during childhood hunger awareness week for kids who are in need.
“We are very humble we are able to do this,” said president of Help 4 Kids, Diane Welsh.
The non-profit organization opened its doors back in 2013. Hundreds of volunteers gather to help feed children across all Florence elementary schools and head starts, that may or may not receive food when they return home from school.
“Being a retired teacher, I knew about children that would go home on the weekends hungry. Academically they do better if they’re not hungry,” said Welsh.
Welsh said this has been an ongoing problem in Florence County for many years.
“This is a situation of one out of four children in Florence County. We feed 2,412 children a week,” said Welsh.
Children receive a food bag each week packed with breakfast, lunch, and dinner items.
“We give a pack of ramen noodles, canned pasta, two breakfast packages either oatmeal or grits, two fruit bars, applesauce, peaches, or pineapple and then we have green beans,” said Welsh.
Welsh said children are exicted to receive a bag and not have to worry about when they’ll be receiving their next meal. “It empowers the children to know that somebody cares about them consistently because they have that bag of food in their posession and nobody can take that from them,” said Welsh.
If you would like to donate, or volunteer click here.
