A new project, ‘Belly Buddies’ at Glendale Elementary

Glendale Elementary has a new outreach volunteer-based project, “Belly Buddies.”
The mission and purpose of Belly Buddies is to provide yummy, healthy and full nutritious foods to those students in need.
Belly Buddies are strictly designed and purposed for Glendale students only.
Katie Richard, pre-k teacher at Glendale, says, “Our cafeteria ladies do a fantastic job of providing healthy breakfast and lunch for our kids, but for some students, the weekend or holidays can be hard, because they don’t know where their next meal will come from. We want to insure that our babies are healthy and happy!”
Richard did her research, “According to recent studies, one in five children in the US struggles with hunger. Unfortunately, we have children at our school that may not have healthy foods to eat at home.”
Teachers at Glendale submit a discreet list of students names to Richard. Richard, along with volunteer paraprofessionals Paula Noblitt, Penny LeJeune, and Janene Cormier, pack up the ‘ready to eat’ foods. On Fridays the students leave with a Belly Buddy bag of food, and are asked to return the empty bag to school on Mondays.
Richard says that for now the Belly Buddies serve students at Glendale, but hopes eventually that the project will catch on. “I hope to eventually receive enough donations to help children in other schools in Eunice. I’ve shared information with different teachers in Eunice and they are really excited about the idea.”
The easy to prepare and ready foods can include: cereal, fruit cups, granola bars, Easy Mac, Spaghetti-O’s, etc.
“We ask for children- ready easy foods to open and eat,” said Richard.
For those who wish to donate easy ready foods, or give a cash donation toward food items, can do so by dropping off at the school’s office, or can call 457-4121.
Some suggestions of food items are: individual boxes of cereal, cereal/granola bars, ready to eat oatmeal, fruit cups, poptarts, Vienna sausage, crackers, Chef Boyardee Pop-Top meals, Easy Mac, ready to eat soups (pop tops), applesauce, raisins, trail mix or nuts and fruit chews.
Items must be single serving packages that are easy for little hands to open, and ready to eat without preparation