The We Cancerve Movement, Inc. has teamed with Hormel Foods to provide access to supplemental meal boxes to nearly 400 elementary school students and their families in East Aberdeen and Joppa, Md. Hormel Foods donated $1,500 to the initiative.
Through its Brunch Box initiative, We Cancerve seeks to assist families in providing meals over the summer months as a supplement to already existing meal benefit programs provided through the local school system.
This project is an extension of the nonprofit’s Breakfast Bags Bonanza, created in 2016 to give free individual breakfast sacks to greater Baltimore area homeless and foster children during Thanksgiving and Winter breaks. Last fall, We Cancerve expanded its program to serve children at Hall’s Cross Roads Elementary School, a community school in East Aberdeen.
“We’re determined to not let COVID-19 stop us from doing what we love doing and that’s bringing happiness to children. It’s just now, through this project, we’re broadening our services. We’re reaching the entire family,” said We Cancerve Founder Grace Callwood, 15, rising sophomore in Edgewood High School’s Global Studies International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. Callwood is also the 2019 World of Children Honoree and a 2019 CNN Young Wonder.
Callwood said the Brunch Box initiative supports families in supplementing meals not provided by the school system or who need extra help beyond Maryland’s Department of Human Services incentive for certain families to access the Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT) funds to purchase food while schools are closed. Her school partners have identified nearly 70 families to receive the boxes in early August.
“Our community continues to be blessed by the never-ending support of the We Cancerve Movement! The We Cancerve Team truly partners with our school in helping to remove barriers being faced by our families during these trying times. Grace’s leadership, heart, and ‘We Can Do’ attitude continue to be an inspiration for us at Hall’s Cross Roads,” said Christina Douglas, principal.
Boxes will be stuffed by We Cancerve and filled with granola bars, fruit cups, dry cereal, and a list of packaged meals hand-selected in consultation with school staff and administrators. A special treat, Entenmann’s Little Bites ® muffins donated by Bimbo Bakeries of Belcamp, will also be included in each box.
The community is invited to donate to the effort by shopping online at https://tinyurl.com/yd2fk3vc.
