Below is the newsletter from Dec. 2, 2011

We are currently sending out 140 backpacks each week, which is always bitter sweet. We are so happy to be a part of something so amazing, but at the same time, sad to know that there are so many kids suffering!

Hello Friends!!!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families! We have much to be thankful for, don't we? We have a lot going on in the kids food pak world and we are excited to share with you!

We are currently sending out 140 backpacks each week, which is always bitter sweet. We are so happy to be a part of something so amazing, but at the same time, sad to know that there are so many kids suffering! I recently watched a t.v. show on the Food Network that featured 4 school cafeteria cooks, one of which packs backpacks for students to take home on the weekends. It also showed that at her school, they always have "Pasta Monday" because so many kids in her community go without over the weekends, they want to fill them up when they get back to school. It made me realize that this is an epidemic happening! Children in our country, state, community...right in our back yards are suffering! 1 out of 4 kids in our own country do not get enough to eat! 29% of all children are "food insecure" meaning they do not have the security of knowing that they will eat! But, we all can do something to help!

At Kids Food Pak, we need all the help we can get! Please, help us help them! We are in need of volunteers to pack backpacks and also deliver them. Packing takes place on Tuesdays, mid-day. We need help delivering them, which happens on Friday mornings at 8:30. Because we are sending out so many, our delivery people are a bit overwhelmed! We also, always need help on food delivery days (these are the days when food is delivered from Oregon Food Bank, every other Friday) usually at 10:00 a.m.

Our food and financial donations have been down a bit more than usual, so if you would like to contribute, but volunteering doesn't fit into your schedule this is a great way to help. The cost to sponsor a child is $40 a month and this provides 6 meals a week plus snacks. We have many locations where food can be donated, please check our website for a grocery list. We try to keep it as kid friendly as possible!

As many already know, Kids Food Pak would not be possible without the help from our community. We are a non-profit organization and we run off of donations and volunteers! We would like to thank everyone who has contributed personally by way of food or financial donations and volunteering! Recently, the City of Sweet Home budget committee granted us $3,000.00! This is huge! We thank you very much! Thank you to the Lebanon and Sweet Home Gleaners, who donates bread and to the Pepsi Corp. who donates drinks! We are so grateful for your service!

Most of us will never know what this program means to the kids involved! We do know, however that they are not unaware of their circumstances. They know that their situations are not like a lot of the kids they attend school with. They also know that someone cares! They may not know who we are, but they know we care. At one of our schools, they held a food drive. We have been told that students were taking food out of their KFP backpacks and donating food to the food drive....not because they didn't like the food or because all of their friends brought food to donate, but because they know what its like to be hungry and this was their way of giving back! How cool!

If you would like to donate food, we offer several drop sites :* St. Helens Catholic Church,
* S.H. Mennonite Church
* Community Chapel
* Umpqua Bank
* Wells Fargo Bank
*American Family Video
* Periwinkle Provisions

If you would like to sponsor a child or donated a gift of any amount, you can send checks to: 1780 South Main St. Lebanon, Oregon 97355
***Please make checks payable to Valley Life Church with Kids Food Pak in the memo

If you would like to volunteer, please email us at kidsfoodpak@gmail.com

And for more information visit our website at www.kidsfoodpak.com

Thank you so much for your time and being a part of this program! We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!!

Blessings!

Amanda Royer
KFP Team

Below is the newsletter from May 3, 2011

The bottom line is that we can't control what happens to the food after it leaves our hands, but that we CARE! Hunger in our community is a big problem! Its a problem that has no means to an end, but we can make a difference one child at a time!

Dear Kids Food Pak friends and family,

We hope you all are doing great!! As our school year nears to an end, we all have had some time to reflect on this past school year. It truly has been an amazing year! Looking back to December 2009, when our program started with only 6 backpacks...to today we deliver 126 backpacks each week. We have had tremendous support from our community...several local businesses sport our food barrels in their facilities, along with churches and schools. Schools and students have gotten involved by hosting food drives and art shows! Community members have done the same by hosting several food drives and donation centers. Businesses in Willamette Valley have donated money and food/drinks for the backpacks. Local and surrounding news sources have written articles and broadcast t.v. news reports about KFP! Lets not forget the volunteers that have stepped up every week to be a part of a program that has lit a fire inside all of us! We all have a common interest, and its not to gain our own personal gratification.....but to give back, to help those in need. We have become a family...all very different from one another, but with 1 common thread!

One of the biggest questions we get asked at KFP is..."How do you know that the kids are actually getting the food? How do you know that the parents aren't taking the food and eating it or even worse, selling it?" Well, we don't. And sadly enough, this is happening in some cases. I recently had the opportunity to speak with a school district employee who works closely with the kids who receive backpacks. Her response to this question amazed me..."This is happening in some cases," she says "but the kids in these cases are excited to receive a pack anyways, because they feel like someone actually cares about them." The bottom line is that we can't control what happens to the food after it leaves our hands, but that we CARE! Hunger in our community is a big problem! Its a problem that has no means to an end, but we can make a difference one child at a time!

I also learned through talking with this school employee, that these kids enrolled in KFP are excited and grateful EVERY week when they receive their packs! One student for example....I will call him Tony, he is an older elementary student who was literally jumping for joy when he received his pack recently. I was told that Tony, held his pack above his head, jumped up and down and cheered "I got my backpack....I got my backpack!" This is why we do what we do....Tony is simply one child out of 126 that feels the same way! These kids are some very brave individuals. There is no question that they have experienced some things in their young lives that some of us never have and never will experience! Their bravery amazes me. Recently one of our school counselors received a letter from a very young girl, begging for a "food pack" for her and her sister. My thoughts were....how very big and mature and responsible of her....to stand up and take this responsibility into her own hands, to sit down and write that letter....Why? Because she and her sister are hungry! I am so humbled to be a part of this program. These kids are so much braver than I could ever dream of being.

At KFP we want to stress that we could not do this without the support system we have. No one is single handily doing this....it is a complete group effort! We are so thankful for our KFP family and I promise you....so are 126 minors!
Just a few thank yous to Krystal Juza, thank you for hosting an art show on behalf of KFP and for raising and donating the money that your event brought! Star Touring Motorcycle Chapter, thank you for yet another food drive! Seventh Day Adventist, thank you for your recent food drive and donations! Pepsi, we are always grateful for your weekly support of drink donations, thank you! Alex Paul, thank you for writing an article about KFP and putting us on the front page of the Albany Democrat Herald! The New Era, thank you for the article you ran in our own community newspaper! KEZI NEWS, thank you for our recent T.V. Debut! We appreciate the word getting out about KFP...and again, not for our own gratification, but to raise awareness to benefit kids in need!

We are always grateful to our community supporters, local businesses, churches, schools and volunteers! Thank you for helping us do what we do! As you know....it simply would not be possible without you!

In closing, if you have any questions about KFP or would like to get involved, please email us at kidsfoodpak@gmail.com or visit our website at www.kidsfoodpak.com

Please enjoy this beautiful weather we are having and remember to kiss your mom this weekend! Happy Mother's Day to all you moms! We hope your day is very special!

Best Wishes,

Amanda Royer
KFP Team Member

Below is the newsletter from November 11, 2010

A few weeks ago, 15 members of Star Touring sat outside of Mega Foods in Lebanon and asked shoppers for donations to Kids Food Pak. They delivered to us approximately 15 boxes of food and over $300.00 in cash! How amazing!!

Hello Friends!

We hope you are all doing great and enjoying this season! We are excited to share with you what has been going on with us lately!! We have some really encouraging things to share and also some discouraging things....with the good also comes the bad right?

So....We will start with counting our blessings, and there have been many of those. I would just personally like to say that as a group and organization, we have been beyond blessed and encouraged by our community. We can never take the credit for the things this program has accomplished...all credit goes to our supporters. Kids Food Pak would not be alive if it weren't for the support we have been given through out the community. So thank YOU!
Recently Star Touring motorcycle chapter did something really cool and something that no one else has done for us before. A few weeks ago, 15 members of Star Touring sat outside of Mega Foods in Lebanon and asked shoppers for donations to Kids Food Pak. They delivered to us approximately 15 boxes of food and over $300.00 in cash! How amazing!! We can't thank you enough!!!

Pepsi, who most of you know have been huge supporters of our program; have recently decided to donate to KFP all of their overflow of drinks such as...Gatorade, Sobe Life Water, and Lipton products. So every 2 weeks we get to pick up our haul, which is approximately 18 cases of these different drinks! Unbelievable!! Thank you so much!

Sweet Home High School Leadership Team recently completed a food drive to help support KFP and brought in enough food to fill an entire truck!! Literally a truck load of food! Hats off to them as well! And soon Oak Heights will also be doing a food drive to add their support, so lets keep that in mind!

We would like you to know that our community, supporters and volunteers are working extremely hard in keeping the bellies of hungry children full and nourished! Although our numbers in packs are rising, we still are far from our goal of providing for every child in need. We at Kids Food Pak have lately had cause for worry. This week we sent out 66 backpacks, already exceeding our numbers from last year. This is great news!! The worrisome part is that we have already been asked to add 22 more asap! As most of you know, we will not add a backpack unless we have secured funding to supply that child with food for the rest of the year. This is where our problem comes in...Overall food donations and sponsor numbers are down. Right now, we can not promise that 22 backpacks will be added next week. We are 100% a non-profit organization and rely completely on donations. Please know that we are always grateful of the amount of support we receive, but with the rising numbers of kids in need, we are in need of more support than ever! Please help us help them.

A lot of people are struggling right now with the economy the way it is. One example of a child in need comes from a teacher who recently told us that a parent expressed to her that this program has been amazing for her child and its really tough because when it comes down to the reality of one or the other, a roof over their heads or food on the table....she chooses to pay her rent to provide her child with shelter. An unbearable decision to make!

We would like to remind you of all the ways that you can help! We currently have 13 drop sites for food donations listed below. If you would like to donate food, please visit our website www.kidsfoodpak.com to view the grocery list. We would like to keep it as kid friendly as possible. Some of these kids are preparing meals on their own.

Financial gifts or the sponsorship of a child is always welcomed as well. The cost for sponsoring a child is $40.00 per month, but any gift for any amount is always appreciated. If you would like to help out financially, you can send checks payable to Valley Life Church (kids food pak in the memo) address below. If you are interested in volunteering with our program, please email us at kidsfoodpak@gmail.com . As always your encouragement is greatly appreciated as well!

Food Drop Sites:
• Hawthorne School
• Foster School
• Oak Heights School
• SH Jr. High
• SH High School
• SH Charter School
• Hope Center
• Wells Fargo
• Umpqua Bank
• Community Chapel
• SH Mennonite Church
• First Baptist Church
• Periwinkle Provisions
• St. Helen's Catholic Church

Mail Checks To: Valley Life Church
1780 South Main St.
Lebanon, Or 97355
**Please make checks payable to Valley Life church with Kids Food Pak written in the memo**

We would like to say Thank You to all of our volunteers, without you this wouldn't be possible. Also a big thank you to our teachers and counselors for all you do! We are excited for the future of KFP and excited to have all of you on board with us! Thank you again for all of your support, this includes every form of support! We live in a great community!

For any questions, comments or concerns please email us at kidsfoodpak@gmail.com , we would love to hear from you! On behalf of our team, I would like to wish you a very safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Best wishes to you all!

Amanda Royer
KFP Team/Board Member

Below is the newsletter from September 11, 2010

Hello!

Hello Kids Food Pak Supporters and Friends!

We are excited to be back and ready to begin a new school year! We hope that this summer brought you some relaxation and hope you are rested and ready to once again join our efforts to keep bellies full on the weekends!

For those of you who may not be aware of our program and what we do....We are a group of volunteers who work together along with our school counselors to make sure that children in our community are not going hungry on the weekends. Because of free breakfast and lunch programs, most hungry kids are at least eating 2 meals a day, but over the weekends, many are not being fed....Actually, I think the numbers would astound you. This program was founded in Sweet Home in December 2009, by Dave and Nancy Jennings. This program started with handing out 6 backpacks in December and ended in June with 52! Of course our goal is to be able to supply a backpack to every child that qualifies! Your help is needed!

We have our work cut out for us this year! School has been in session for only 4 days and already kids are asking about backpacks and with the homeless child count for district 55 at 203....we need to get moving! Kids are counting on us! We ended in June with 52 backpacks spread over 6 schools. So far we will be delivering 24 packs to Foster and 11 to Oak Heights on Friday the 17th....So far... The need just seems to be growing, an even bigger reason for you to get involved!

We are always in need of help. There are so many ways for our community to get involved, here are a few:

*Volunteer your time at KFP
*Packing backpacks
*Delivering backpacks
*Picking up backpacks at school after the weekend
*Donating Food (Please see our grocery list on our website)
*Donating money by sponsoring a child for the year or a one time gift

We will be having another volunteer meeting/BBQ. If you are already a volunteer or are interested in becoming one, it is very important that you join us for this as we have a lot to discuss and new things to go over! A date and place have not been set, but we will keep you posted as to when and where!

If you are interested in donating food, please check our website www.kidsfoodpak.com for our grocery list! The Hope Center will be closed the entire month of September, but there are several other locations where you can leave food.
*Hawthorne School
*Foster School
*SH Charter School
*American Family Video
*Wells Fargo Bank
*Periwinkle Provisions
*SH Mennonite Church
* Community Chapel

If you are interested in sponsoring a child this year or donating a one time financial gift, you can mail it to:
Kids Food Pak
P.O. Box 179
Foster, Or 97345
(Please make checks payable to Valley Life Church, kids food pak in the memo)

If you would like to sponsor a child this year, the cost is $40.00 per month, September thru June ($400.00).

Mark your calenders!!! Saturday, October 9th is the 2nd Annual Sweet Home Satellite Walk for the Cause (Brought to you by Soroptimist and Samaritan Health Services) Kids Food Pak is planning on walking as our own group!! If you are interested in joining us, please let us know! Registration is $20.00 and we will be purchasing our own t-shirts for $8.50. This is to raise awareness for our cause! Please join us!

Calling out to our current volunteers; we are looking for a driver to deliver backpacks to Oak Heights on Fridays (Starting this coming Friday) If you are interested, please let us know!!!

Once again, we are so excited to get the ball rolling this year and thank you for supporting our cause! We couldn't do this without your help! Please keep up the good work and continue to get the word out! Amazing things happen when a community comes together to support a cause! Thank you again, we look forward to hearing from you!


Amanda Royer,

Kids Food Pak Team Member

Below is the newsletter from May 7th

Hello Friends,

We would like to share with you some exciting news today in our current newsletter!! To date we are sending out a total of 47 packs each week with various numbers of packs at each school! So far we have Hawthorne, Foster, Oak Heights, Holley, Crawfordsville and as of today the SH Junior High all receiving packs!!

We are continuously reminded of what seems to be a never ending need, but we are also continuously blessed by the overwhelming amount of support and giving of time, food donations and money to the program! With that being said I would like to share with you some exciting things that have happened. In this last month we were donated 70 brand new backpacks, which is a huge blessing! More big news, the Sweet Home Elks donated $1000.00 to our program! So a huge Thank You the the Elks Club!!

And even BIGGER news... We received a call out of the blue from Pepsi Corporation in Corvallis Or. They wanted to tell us that the day after their board members met to discuss the topic of donating to a good cause, one of their board members stumbled upon the article about Kids Food Pak in the Albany Democrat Harold. They knew this was exactly what they were looking for and requested a meeting with our founders, Dave and Nancy Jennings. Upon meeting with Pepsi's owner, Mario Pastega, they presented us with a large check in the sum of $4500.00!!! Amazing!! $4500.00 will supply 10 kids with backpacks for an entire year! Pepsi would also like to use our program for campaigning! Can you imagine? So a Huge Thank You to them as well!



A very generous gift from Pepsi. Above (from the left) are: Mario Pastega, Gary Pastega, Virginia Boxall, David Jennings, Nancy Jennings, Jerry Haile and Curt Sadowsky.

We would like to thank all of our volunteers who show up week after week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays to pack and deliver the backpacks! This program would not be alive without you! We also would like to thank the several churches in town who continuously help with food donations! Your generosity is greatly appreciated!
If you are interested in buying food for the program...we desperately need jelly, in the plastic containers! Thanks!

Now I would like to share with you two stories...one of my own and one that was given to me. I will start with mine, but I will leave the names out...

#1) One day while I was picking up my son at school, a woman walked up to me and started to cry. She wanted to tell me how this program has touched her life. Turns out, she recently became the foster parent of 2 children, the oldest is 7 and has been receiving a backpack every week. When she realized that she was enrolled in this program she called the school counselor to opt out. The counselor told her he would like to keep her enrolled and that it was "her thing" and refused to take it away from her. Then she asked me if I would like to meet her! I immediately said YES! with much excitement and walked to her car. The woman opened the car door and I am telling you the truth...this beautiful, amazing little person had her backpack open and had passed out all of her food equally among the other children. She had the biggest smile and proceeded to tell me all about her "special bag". I never reveled to her that I was a part of the program, but I will never forget her beautiful face! It truly touched me to my soul!

#2) One of the students receiving the Kids Food Pak every Friday is a small 1st grader with big beautiful blue eyes and a quiet disposition. This little girl, we will call her "Mary", is the only child in her fragmented family. Mary's family consists of a grandmother who loves her very much and a single mother who has limited cognitive abilities. Mary has had a rough life for most of her first 6 years on this earth; she was physically abused by her moms live in boyfriend (he is now in jail), and her biological father who is deceased.

Until the start of Kids Food Pak program, Mary had difficulty with attendance and issues trusting adults. She didn't speak much to anyone at school and she seemed to be a sad little girl crying often. That was, until the start of the Kids Food Pak program.

Now she has a smile on her face and is often reminded by her teacher not to talk so much in class. She is friendly and more trusting of the adults by her willingness to smile and talk with those around her. Her attendance is almost perfect and she cant wait to turn in her "special" backpack every Monday morning. She skips down the hall to collect her backpack on Fridays with enthusiasm and joy.

Mary has not just received a backpack of food with this program, she has learned that people care about her and the world is not such a bad place. This program is about the kids, "Nourish the body and feed the mind".

I hope that these stories will touch you the same way they did me! Thank you again for your continued support, and if you would like to get involved please email us at, kidsfoodpak@gmail.com

As always if you would like to donate money, please make checks payable to Valley Life Church and be sure to write Kids Food Pak in the memo. The money will be given directly to us.

Valley Life Church
1780 South Main St.
Lebanon, Or 97355


Sincerely;

Amanda Royer
KFP Team
May 7, 2010

Below is the newsletter from April 6, 2010

Hello!

I would like to update everyone on the progress we've made with KFP! This week we will nearly double the number of backpacks going out! As of Friday, 41 packs will be delivered to hungry kids! WOW! Along with that comes more good news in that we will be adding 3 more schools! This week Crawfordsville, Holley and Oak Heights will all be receiving backpacks adding to Hawthorne and Foster schools that already receive them! This is fantastic news! Thank you for your continued support!

Now for the more serious stuff.....Due to more packs being delivered, this leaves us with a minor problem...Our supply of actual backpacks is running low! Please keep that in mind when people ask about needs or how to help! Also, we are always in need of volunteers, in fact, we are going to need drivers to deliver packs to the additional Crawfordsville and Holley Schools. We also need volunteers for other areas so if you or anyone you know would like to be a volunteer, please let us know! For all volunteers or anyone interest in volunteering, we are having a "Volunteer Training Program" on April 13th at 6:00pm at the KFP Pantry, located at The Hope Center. For more info. please email us at kidsfoodpak@gmail.com.

We would like to think everyone again for the continued support, whether you support financially, volunteering or even in the form of encouragement, we appreciate you and couldn't do this without you!

I want to remind everyone that we have come under the "Umbrella" of Valley Life Church for our non-profit status, so if you are supporting us financially, please remember to make checks payable to Valley Life Church and write "Kids Food Pak" in the memo. You can mail checks to the Valley Life office at 1780 South Main St. Lebanon, Or. 97355.

If you haven't already, please check out our temporary web page at www.valleylifechurch.net You will see the Kids Food Pak link.

We hope everyone had a great Easter weekend! Once again, thank you for your support. For questions, comments or concerns please contact us at kidsfoodpak@gmail.com


Checks Payable To:
Valley Life Church
1780 South Main St.
Lebanon, Or 97355
Kids Food Pak in memo

Thank You,

Amanda Royer
Kids Food Pak
April 6, 2010