Help Sunnyvale Kids Be Ready for School

Did you know that when school is out, half of Sunnyvale’s school children are hungry? 47% of Sunnyvale’s children qualify for free or reduced school meals, and during the summer months, they miss the balanced nutrition they get during the school year. That’s why Sunnyvale Community Services is partnering with the Sunnyvale School District, Sunnyvale Rotary, and the Northwest YMCA to help all of our school children get the food they need this summer, and be ready for success in school this fall. Our community is working together to fill the gaps for food, backpacks, school supplies, and shoe vouchers for our children.

Sunnyvale Community Services has been helping families and seniors year-round since 1970—but we’ve never seen this explosion of need for our kids. Children make up 22% of the population of Sunnyvale, but they are 41% of the people we help at Sunnyvale Community Services.

A hungry child cannot learn. A child without the necessary school supplies cannot be prepared for school. A child with ill-fitting shoes cannot thrive and grow.

This summer Sunnyvale Community Services hopes to fill over 2,400 bags with kid-friendly foods in June, July, and August. We’re building a mountain of 1,100 backpacks and school supplies to distribute on August 16th. And, we are stretching our goals even further to have over 1,000 shoe vouchers so that children in Sunnyvale can be ready for school this year from Head to Toe!

A few years ago, we had to cut our shoe voucher program, due to funding cuts. But families and children still asked for them. So we started paying attention to the shoes of children who come to Sunnyvale Community Services—and that convinced us that we had to raise the funds to give every child a voucher for new shoes along with a filled backpack and a summer’s worth of kid-friendly food this year.

According to the California Budget Project report Playing with our Future, “Nearly one out of four California children lives in poverty, and many families—including single mothers and their children—continue to face economic uncertainty in the aftermath of the Great Recession.”

You can read more updates at http://www.cbp.org.