Kids Meals Service Project

If you were asked a few weeks ago to make a run to the grocery store to buy fruit snacks or peanut butter crackers, you are probably a high schooler at SBS, or you know one. Recently, SBS upper school students came together to support the Kids Meals organization. Service Prefect Caroline Bolling ‘21 chose this organization because “children are suffering and don’t have their basic needs of food. We are privileged to be able to help provide it to them.” Through her innovative ideas and encouraging reminders, students took part in the project with enthusiasm, donating and packaging 1,000 meals. Sophomore Caroline Marshall stated that “it was such a fun way to give back to our community for such a meaningful organization.”

About the Organization 

Kids Meals’ mission is to “end childhood hunger in Houston and provide families with resources to help end the cycle of poverty.” This organization is fighting the crisis by bringing packaged lunches to the doorsteps of many impoverished families with young children. These healthy lunches consist of a sandwich, nutritious snack, fruit item and 100% juice or milk and help provide for a child in need. Kids Meals has given over 6.7 million free meals to children in 43 Houston-area zip codes since its inception. They deliver 7,000 meals every weekday with the help of many partners, volunteers and schools who participate in service projects! The coronavirus pandemic forced their program to grow 135% overnight, and they need volunteers and donations now more than ever. The Kids Meals organization expresses that they “will not quit until no child is hungry.” For more information, visit https://kidsmealsinc.org.

Service in Action

Every Thursday, upper school students are split by grade levels to either virtually watch Chapel in individual classrooms or participate in person through socially distanced seating in the Sanctuary. However, this Chapel looked a little different as we took part in the service project. Throughout the week, we dropped donations into bins as we entered school. The Service Prefect Committee worked hard to promote the event by making posters and fun video reminders for us. Each grade level participated in a friendly competition to see who could bring the most items -- juniors won! Once donations were collected and sorted by type, we decorated paper bags with fun illustrations on the front and an encouraging Bible verse on the back. Filled bags were collected and delivered to the Kids Meals organization. Junior Emma Wentz asserted that the project “provided [her] with the opportunity to serve our community on a much larger scale than [she] could have done individually.”

Second Baptist School’s service projects are about more than coloring and packaging brown lunch bags; these projects provide opportunities for us to be involved in our community, serving as the hands and feet of Jesus. Service projects exemplify what it is like for us to live biblically as we serve others. Every lunch bag that we packaged was another step closer to eradicating childhood hunger in Houston, and every service project we participate in reminds us of God’s provision in our lives and inspires us to find more ways to serve those around us.