With school back in session, Foster Farms kicked off its seventh year of sponsoring the Food 4 Thought program that delivers more than 13,500 pounds of groceries each month to 800 elementary students in seven Stanislaus County schools. At Eisenhut Elementary, one of the program's first schools, students received 2,000 pounds of groceries. During the event school leaders, food bank staff and company representatives congratulated students for their hard work. This comes at a time when California food insecurity rates are the highest in 10 years. One in four California children – 2.4 million – have limited or uncertain access to adequate amounts of nutritious food. In Stanislaus County alone, 65.7 percent of all students are eligible for free and reduced-cost lunches.
Food 4 Thought is an incentive-based program that addresses two fundamental needs – hunger and education. Students participate in eight hours of weekly after-school programs (four academic, four extracurricular) in exchange for a 15- to 18- pound bag of groceries twice a month. In partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank, Foster Farms brought the Food 4 Thought program to Stanislaus County in 2009. Since then, the program has provided 4,500 Central Valley elementary students with more than 1.3 million pounds of food. According to a recent Second Harvest parent survey, the program is improving students' diets and lifestyles.