By Mary Sheerin
Thirty-one Andes Central School children received their first SnakPaks of the new school year on Friday, September 8th. All the students, Pre-K through 3rd grade, went home with paper bags filled with healthy goodies. These included cherry tomatoes, cheese, crackers, grapes, cucumbers, bananas and small packets of natural almonds. Seven volunteers prepared, packed, and delivered the bags to the school before closing time.
This is the SnakPaks’ fourth year of providing healthy snacks to Andes school children. Our goal is to support parents as they ensure that their children have nutritionally sound food choices that are also delicious treats. We hope that such foods find their way permanently into the families’ diets.
At a recent volunteers’ meeting, fundraising was discussed. It was decided to solicit gift certificates from corporate headquarters of Price Chopper and Freshtown. Meanwhile, one of our volunteers collected $117 at the Andes Community Day festivities. The donation jars at businesses in Andes (Paisley’s, Atelier Aubergine and the Andes General Store) continue to collect small donations that are gratefully received.
We welcome anyone interested in volunteering to prepare the bags on Fridays at the Andes Presbyterian Church; it involves approximately an hour of time, starting at 1 pm. We also encourage our supporters to donate to the fund that pays for the snacks themselves.~