The motivation behind the South Plains Food2Kids program developed when Junior League of Lubbock member, Donna Chandler, began her involvement with the South Plains Food Bank. She was asked to serve on the U Can Share Food Drive committee and to be the Coordinator of Schools for the food drive.

As Donna was in the midst of this project, she hurried into her child’s school one Monday morning to bring her son his forgotten homework. As she rushed past the darkened second-grade classrooms, she heard a noise coming from one of the empty rooms. She stopped to investigate the noise, turned on the light, and found a young boy eating from three lunch boxes. He was eating so fast, he did not even stop to look up at Donna. She quietly turned off the light and headed into the office.

After some investigation, it turned out that the child had barely eaten all weekend. With Donna’s help, the school was able to arrange for the boy’s family to receive assistance from the South Plains Food Bank. The story of this child convinced Donna that children in the Lubbock community were in need of assistance.

Many years later, the South Plains Food2Kids program continues to focus on addressing this need.  South Plains Food2Kids works with Lubbock ISD elementary schools to provide sacks of food to children identified as food insecure, meaning that they don’t know where their next meal will be coming from.