For students who are facing food insecurities, paying attention in class can become difficult when hunger takes its toll.

In order to help students who are struggling, the Greenwood Education Foundation (GEF) created Feed to Succeed, a district-wide program designed to help provide food-related resources for students. 

“Feed to Succeed came out of an awareness that even though the schools provide free lunches, we needed to provide things to help students make sure they can learn when they come into the classroom,” Mrs. Tiffany Woods, GEF executive director, said. 

High-quality snacks are an essential aspect of this program. GEF wants to provide students with nutritional snack items to help them be successful in school. 

“Food pantries are a great resource, but they are often filled with snacks which are not necessarily the most nutritious.  They are often very processed, and most of the time they are something like a cereal bar which is quick and easy but lacks nutrition. We wanted to offer the students something that was a little higher in protein and less carbs,” Mrs. Woods said. 

The Feed to Succeed program provides these high protein snacks to all of the schools in the district. The snacks are stored and distributed in each of the nurse’s offices and are available to any student who wants them.

“The goal of GEF was to provide high quality snacks to help kids who may have some food insecurities as well as just needing a little break. These food insecurities need to be deregulated, and having things that are higher in protein and are high quality snacks is what is so helpful.  These snacks can include protein shakes, protein bars, cheesesticks. I mean there are a lot of different things that we probably would not be able to afford to purchase otherwise because those items that are higher quality are more expensive, and so we are just very thankful to them for allowing us to kind of pilot that program because we have kids come into the nurse’s office, and once you start thinking a little deeper into their symptoms, then sometimes you find out there is food insecurities at home or you know they have not eaten for whatever reason. That gives us an opportunity to educate them on how important the quality of your food is,” Mrs. Libby Cruzan, nurse, said. 

Each month, the snacks are distributed to the schools, and all of them go towards helping  hungry students. 

“Every month, I load up the GEF Cares bus and head over to Costco and then make my rounds to all six schools. We provided 8,560 snacks last year and they were all utilized. We spent roughly $4,000 of our budget for this,” Mrs. Woods said. 

To help provide resources for Feed to Succeed, GEF partnered with the Indiana Association of Public Education Foundation (INAPEF), whose mission is to support local public education foundations by raising money. 

“We met with our teachers and discussed what we needed, and that is how it first started.  Our first funding was a 50 percent partnership through INAPE. They gave us a $2,000 grant, and we funded the other $2,000,” Mrs. Woods said.  

Thanks to the Feed to Succeed program, students are able to receive resources that will relieve some of the anxiety regarding food insecurities. 

“I think because food insecurity is a very touchy topic for some people, it provides the means to get what you need to get through a few days without it being so direct. Especially being in high school, you do not really want that type of attention on you, so students who I have identified might be in need, I can have a private conversation with them, and they can come and get their food before the day ends so that they do not have to worry,” Ms. Kara Christian-Moss, said. 

GEF saw positive results last year and plans to continue this program for students. 

“Is it such a big deal, and this has been such a good blessing to us because it is meeting a need. We are receiving high quality snacks that we would not have been able to provide otherwise. It all goes towards so many needs, so it has just given us an opportunity to be able to help keep kids in school, which obviously that’s our goal,” Mrs. Cruzan said. 

Anyone needing food or snacks can visit the nurse’s office.