Food bagging schedule at Alameda County Community Food Bank:
9:00am - 11:00am

2012: Oct 3, 17 & 31; Nov 14; Dec 5 & 19
2013: Jan 9 & 23; Feb 6 & 20; Mar 6 & 20; Apr 10 & 24; May 8 & 22; June 5

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Challenge: 63 % of OUSD students who depend on school-supplied meals are undernourished on weekends.

Faith Network's Health4Kids program is designed to address the multifaceted health issues affecting 1,000s of children and families in our community.  In response to the need expressed by our schools' staff, Health4Kids provides a bag of nourishing, kid-friendly food and recipes for children to take home from school every Friday.  Many of these children who are dependent on school-supplied breakfasts and lunches go home to empty cupboards and refrigerators over the weekend.  Often times students come to school hungry and unable to learn on Monday morning.  Through our association with the Alameda County Community Food Bank and other agencies, we can prepare and deliver food bags to our schools.

Complementing direct food delivery to kids, the Health 4 Kids program will promote healthy lifestyles for children and their families by way of: a) parent education on nutrition, health and exercise, b) classes on cooking and meal preparation (many of the children are preparing meals for their younger siblings), c) providing families with information on how to access health care and health insurance resources, d) promoting and assisting with the creation of school vegetable gardens that give students hands-on education on how plants grow and which food groups comprise a balanced diet.

Program Director: Charlotte Martinez
Charlotte Martinez retired in 2006 from Chicago Title Company where she had served as their Vice President and Branch Manager of the Montclair branch for many years, and then in Operations Management in the final years of her service there.  Following her desire to work in the non-profit sector, she has spent the last year volunteering in various places, working as a writer coach at Longfellow Middle School in Berkeley; continuing as a Selection Committee Member for the Incentive Awards Scholarship Program at U.C. Berkeley; serving as Volunteer Coordinator and as a Deacon at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley; and with Faith Network in their outreach to urban public schools.  Her favorite role, however, is mother to three daughters and sons-in-law, and grandmother to her many grandchildren.

OUTCOME: The end result will be a healthier student that is much better prepared to learn and maximize his or her full potential.  

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