It’s hard to believe but the Toledo area has children who are suffering the effects of hunger, right here in our own community. Thanks to the Toledo Rotary Club Foundation and other supporters in the community, Mobile Meals is helping to put an end to hunger.

To most schoolchildren, weekends are an eagerly anticipated break—an opportunity to trade the rigors of education for more enjoyable activities. But for a growing number of Toledo students, weekends are more than a recess from learning; they are a two-day interruption in their primary source of nutrition. Cut off from government lunch programs, many students receive little—or nothing at all—to eat on Saturday and Sunday. By Monday morning, these children are too hungry to concentrate on their class work.

Mobile Meals of Toledo’s Weekender Program® provides food to children at six Toledo area schools who would otherwise get inadequate nourishment over the weekend. These 1,600 students who qualify for free or reduced-cost lunches receive a bag of food to take home with them every Friday afternoon. The bags contain kid-friendly snacks such as cereal, fresh fruits, juice, snacks and granola bars—all are healthy items that require no refrigeration and are easily opened by children. The Weekender Program® helps ensure that students have enough to eat all weekend long so they can come to school Monday morning nourished and ready to learn.