As the school year begins in January, our work to end hunger and malnutrition in underprivileged children throughout our community continues. Blue Cares is seeking volunteers to help package healthy snack packs for elementary students, deliver them, and even provide some of the food to include in the snack packs.
Project CJ (Caring for Juniors), a Blue Cares program, is a food assistance initiative that benefits students who come from low-income families and attend Title One elementary schools in San Antonio. The goal of Project CJ is to ensure children have enough healthy snacks and food options during their time away from school and on weekends. For a school to qualify as Title One, at least 40% of students must be enrolled in the “free and reduced lunch program.”
Blue Cares and the San Antonio Food Bank partnered together to create Project CJ to ensure children have enough healthy snack and food options during their time away from school during the school year. Project CJ works with educators and administrators at Title One schools to identify children in need. Project CJ is important because proper nutrition is a basic necessity, and when the weekend comes and there’s not a school cafeteria around, a sizable portion of children attending Title One schools may go hungry during the day. Project CJ “snack packs” of canned meals, grain bars, other small snacks, and bottled water are delivered to schools on Thursdays for the weekend ahead. Project CJ also sends extra “snack packs” home with students who have siblings that are too young to attend school.
Blue Cares and Project CJ are only able to help these kids because of the support of our great volunteers and donors. Please consider volunteering or donating to Project CJ, and keep following Blue Cares for other ways to help underprivileged children and families throughout San Antonio.