The holidays are here, but not everyone will be able to share a holiday meal with friends and family this December.
1 in 8 Middle Tennesseans are currently facing hunger, and 1 in 6 of those individuals are children.
Delta Dental and Farm Bureau Health Plans are helping us put hope back on the table for struggling families, children, and seniors this holiday season.
Fighting Child Hunger and Health
Abel and LaQuinton are two of 35 children at Glenview Elementary who receive BackPacks, a weekly program that provides easy-to-prepare food for more than 6,000 at-risk children on weekends. Understanding that food and health go hand-in-hand, Delta Dental has been supplying toothbrushes to the program since 2013.
“The students were so happy to get these as some of them didn’t have one,” said one school counselor. “One of our children went straight to the bathroom, used his, came back and was smiling at me. I asked, ‘What’s going on buddy?’ and he said, ‘My teeth feel brand new.’”
Currently, Delta Dental provides more than 30,000 toothbrushes a year to children in need across Tennessee.
Mobile Pantry Feeds Hope
Recently, Farm Bureau Health Plans hosted a Mobile Pantry in Maury County.
Mobile Pantries are large-scale, one-day distributions. Set up is similar to a farmers’ market, and individuals go through a line of tables and choose what food their family needs most.
Partners like Farm Bureau Health Plans are essential in making it possible for us to host regular Mobile Pantries in some of the most food insecure communities in Middle Tennessee.
At the Mobile Pantry in Maury County, Farm Bureau Health Plans employees volunteered their time and energy and helped run the distribution. In total, they distributed more than 28,000 pounds of food (equalling nearly 24,000 meals) to 530 people facing hunger.
