Hunger in Moose Jaw is hosting its annual fall fundraising campaign to bring healthy lunches into local school’s to give to all students. The "I Bought A Lunch" fundraising campaign occurs annually about this time of the year.
This year it will be taking place Oct. 4 to Nov. 16 with a goal of raising $50,000 in order to continue to do the campaign in school divisions.
For the last 11 years, the organization has made approximately 500,000 lunches. All proceeds from the campaign will go toward the Child Nutrition program at Hunger in Moose Jaw which provides lunches for hundreds of children in school’s a day. The organization normally provides approximately 65,000 lunches in a full school year.
The lunches are free for the kids but a form is available for parents to fill out to notify of allergies or restrictions a student might have.
“We do our very best to accommodate every single one of those. We have alternative food options as we want them to have a lunch that they are going to eat, not a lunch that they can’t,” says executive director Sharla Sept.
There is no criteria requirements so families can contact their school if they are interested in getting involved.
“We have a wonderful community support system between private donations and businesses. There’s always been support for our program and through the school’s too,” says Sept.
Donations can be made by cash, credit, cheque or debit. Donations can also be made in person at participating local businesses around the city “Every dollar literally counts. It’s about a dollar to run a lunch,”
They also accept e-transfer at [email protected] and to receive a tax receipt please include your contact information in the e-transfer.
If anyone would like to make a donation they are asked to phone ahead of time to 306-692-1916.
Throughout years of operating the campaign, Sept has seen many personal success stories when it comes to feedback from the community.
“The community continues to support us after all these years so we have to be making an impact on our involvement in the community …and an impact on people’s lives,” says Sept. “We always want to say thank you to our community as they have supported us for over 25 years and we are still going and we are still out there but we could not do it without the publics support,” added Sept.
