How to get a look inside Columbus food bank helping feed hungry kids
The region’s food bank gave people in a 14-county area, including Muscogee, almost nine million pounds of food last year.
Now, the public is invited to see where most of the work was done to store, sort and distribute all of that food that fed needy families in the region.
Tours of the Feeding the Valley Food Bank warehouse, 6744 Flat Rock Road, will be one of the activities during the annual Kids in the Kitchen Fall Festival on Sept 21.
“(The festival) is a really good way for us to show people where we are and what we do,”said Carleen Frokjer, food bank fund development administrator. “(The festival is) right there in our warehouse. We’ve been in it for two years now, and the community is starting to get to know us a little bit better.”
There’s a lot to learn about Feeding the Valley Food Bank. Their 2018 Annual summary shares some impressive data about how they serve the community.
For instance, the food bank provided more than 360,000 after-school meals in Muscogee County and Russell County, Alabama, last fiscal year, and distributed more than 53,000 “buddy packs,” which are meals sent home with kids over the weekend.
The food bank and the Junior League of Columbus are partnering on the fall event, which focuses on food and healthy children so there also will be activities tied to that theme.
Interactive activities include a nutrition station with a game about food, food stations like an oatmeal bar, and an activity that encourages kids to play with the food by sorting items on their “plate” into different food groups.
“(The kids will) have to look at different foods and put them into what’s healthy and what’s not healthy (categories,)”said Alison Brown, chair of the 2019 Kids in the Kitchen event.
The event is free, but Frokjer said the food bank welcomes both food and financial donations.
