Combat Child Hunger with Drop Off Location at Festival Foods

United Way’s Nutrition on Weekends Serves Hundreds

Kids don’t have to go to bed hungry.

Combat child hunger by dropping off a donation for the United Way Nutrition on Weekends (NOW), which services hundreds of children in Marshfield and surrounding communities. Nutritious food packs are given out with the help of volunteers on Fridays for kids enrolled in the program.

Festival Foods offers a convenient drop-off location inside its store for the program’s most-need items, including low sugar cereal (Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, Life or Raisin Bran) granola bars, and grape jelly or strawberry jam.

“Festival Foods has been a great supporter of the NOW program since it started,” said Paula Jero, Executive Director at Marshfield Area United Way. “Oftentimes Festival will let us order sale items by the case, which is so helpful in making our budget stretch.”

Once a month, Festival employees make sandwiches, bag food, and assemble the packs, which come equipped with two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, two cups cereal, two pieces of fruit, baby carrots, two snack items, and cheese.

Sponsors are needed to cover the costs. “It costs $2.29 for a pack and there are 34 weeks that the NOW program is in operation for the school year, so the total cost is $78 to sponsor a child. Individuals can choose which school to sponsor if they wish,” said Jero.

Sponsors will receive a card with information about their sponsored child. Sponsorships can be complete online at the United Way website at this link. https://www.marshfieldareaunitedway.org/now-sponsorship-form

Drop off donations at the United Way office (156 S Central Ave) or at Festival Foods after September 10 in the big yellow bin near Associated Bank.