Volunteers at Crosspath at East Ridge fill Snack Packs for students at Spring Creek Elementary.Take $1.75 and multiply it by 250.
Then multiply that number by the number of Fridays in the school year – approximately 34.
Before jotting down the answer, imagine trying to solve a word problem just like this one without a calculator.
Now imagine trying to do it as an elementary schooler with an empty stomach.
The correct answer to the problem is 14,875. That’s about how much Crosspath at East Ridge spent last year feeding children at Spring Creek Elementary through its weekend Snack Pack Ministry so they don’t go hungry over the weekend when they’re not guaranteed meals at school.
Each week approximately 40 volunteers gather to prepare six to seven items for each pack before delivering them to the school.
“We’d like to expand [the service] to also cover East Ridge Elementary, but we’re not meeting the need yet at Spring Creek,” said Crosspath’s Snack Pack coordinator Sheri Mitchell. “Ninety-five percent of their enrollment is eligible for it based on the free lunch program.”
Earlier this spring the church hosted its inaugural Run to Feed, a 5k to benefit the program. Mitchell estimates the race, which had 200 participants, raised approximately $4,500 to put toward the program next year.
“We wanted to reach out, hoping our community will buy into the program, and we feel like they will,” she said. “People want to do something for other people; sometimes they just don’t know how. This is something we can do something about.”
The church has already scheduled its race next year for May 16 and is always looking for people or businesses to help with the program, she added.
This new type of outreach is one of several programs the church started to better connect with the community.
“Our church has been in East Ridge since the ’80s and nothing has stayed the same,” Mitchell said. “Everything has changed, so we have changed too. We tried to change our approach to ministry to really reach out into the community.”