EHP's Kid's Meals n' Snack Program Receives a Boost From Norwest Ventures

Last year EHP instituted the Kid's Snack Program as an adjunct to the Pack-A-Bag weekend lunchbag for kids. Before long, the two programs merged, creating a combination meal and snack bag for children available every service day. The new program was a success among the children and their parents and soon the snack bags were wildly popular. We were only limited by the amount of food items on hand and volunteers available to create the sacks.
In our first year, we received grants from the Menlo Park Rotary Club and the Meta Local Community Fund. This, along with in-kind donations from individual contributors got us through that first year. This year, the Palo Alto Rotary Club joined our list of grantors along with the RC of Menlo Park and the Meta Local Community Fund, but as the popularity of the program grew and the cost of goods increased, it was hard to keep up with the demand. Pantry Lead, Kim Jackson, said she had to hold back the number of meal n' snack bags distributed each day to ensure she would have enough for the rest of the week. Many of the parents wanted multiple bags to last a week, but we had to restrict the number given to our families to 1 bag per child.
But Christmas came early this year when Norwest Venture Partners, a venture capital company located in Menlo Park, called and said they had a truckload of food items for EHP. It turned out several of Norwest's employees volunteered in EHP's pantry earlier this year. Some were assigned to create our Kid's meal n' snack bags and loved the idea that EHP was providing kid-friendly, easy to prepare meals and snacks to low-income children who might not otherwise have enough food to eat. They took this back to their company and in response, Norwest Ventures initiated a project titled "Operation Conquer Hunger". Not only did Norwest purchase lunch and snack items, their employees packaged these goodies into individual bags that could be immediately distributed to our families. In total, Norwest donated over 1,000 Meal n' Snack bags, along with additional boxes of individually packaged meals. The timing could not have been better. With the holidays rapidly approaching and schools closed for the holidays, these Meal n' Snack bags will be especially needed by our low-income children. 
​THANK YOU, NORWEST VENTURES for caring!!