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Higher Hopes has great news for families with students enrolled in the Head Start programs in Detroit for the 2023-2024 school year. The 501 (C)(3) is very pleased to announce that it has partnered with Blessings in a Backpack to provide nutritious and delicious food for the weekend so students return to school on Mondays ready to learn. Blessings in a Backpack is a national organization that helps put together food meal kits that are sent home with children for the weekend. The menus for food sent home on Fridays are designed by a licensed dietician, a team of educators, and kids. The food is shelf-stable and can be eaten without the aid of can openers, microwaves, or even refrigerators. Perfect for tiny hands, the food is also healthy and places an emphasis on high fiber and protein. The food is meant to ensure that kids no longer go hungry on the weekends. Surveys conducted by the organization have found that Blessings in a Backpack participants also experience the following impact:
• 78% feel cared for by their community
• 71% feel they are helping their family
• 70% say their attendance at school is better
• 69% say it is easier to learn
• 67% say their family is happier
• 62% say they are hungry less often
• 60% have fewer behavioral issues at school
“We are so excited to bring this program to our Head Start facilities in Detroit and even more excited to help stamp out weekend hunger pangs,” says Bill Birndorf, founder of Higher Hopes! “We’re now accepting donations to help support this program and people can do so on our website at www.higherhopesdetroit.org. It’s an amazing program as only $150 will see one
child given weekend food throughout the entire school year. For the first year our aim is to provide weekend food to a minimum of 1,500 children per month and we are aggressively working to raise $200,000 to fund this program. Looking forward, our long-term goal is to grow the number of children reached each year. With this very important and meaningful program we want kids to come to school on Monday morning without the pains of hunger that they might experience without our involvement.” Corporate and individual contributions are always welcome and can be made at www.higherhopesdetroit.org or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/higherhopesdetroit. For more information about Higher Hopes! and interviews with Bill Birndorf, please call 248/360-9300, email volunteer@higherhopesdetroit.org, or visit www.higherhopesdetroit.org.