Community Support Crucial to Help Maintain Programs

Information released by Thrive Executive Director, Kayla Helleson

In partnership with Chelan and Manson School Districts, Thrive will be offering weekend food support (via our established Food2Schools program) for school-aged (Preschool-12th Grade) students during the temporary school closures associated with COVID-19.

Schools will provide breakfast and lunch support for students during the closure period. School officials have released information to students and their families regarding those supports and how to access them.  For more information on school meals, please feel free to visit the district websites.

Prior to school closures, Thrive had been supporting food insecure students with weekend meals via the schools and Thrive Teen Center.  Because the access points have been limited due to COVID-19, our Thrive Cares Leadership Team developed an innovative plan to meet the already present need.

Therefore, starting this Friday, March 20th, Thrive will provide weekend food support to registered Chelan and Manson students for the next six weeks during temporary school closures. Students and their parents will be able to access an outdoor, drive-thru location set up in both Chelan and Manson, on school premises. We are thankful to both district superintendents, Barry DePaoli and Matt Charlton, for their support and partnership.

Each Food2School bag costs roughly $2.75 and has enough food to support a school-aged child through the weekend. Currently we are about a third of the way to our goal ($6,600) which would allow us to distribute 400 bags of food each Friday for the next six weeks.  If you would like to support our efforts, please feel free to click on the link below: https://thrivechelanvalley.com/gives/.  Thank you to all who have donated time and funds to make this support a reality for our local kids!

We are anticipating that more needs will rise to the surface as time goes on and families are voicing them.  We will keep folks posted on ways that we are working with our schools and community to identify gaps and find innovative ways to meet needs of youth.

We are thankful for our generous community and amazing team of volunteers who are looking for ways to serve youth during this unprecedented time.

If you have questions, feel free to reach out to us at 509-934-2211. #wearethrivechelanvalley #thrivecares #thrivechelanvalley #strongcommunities