TJFS' CEO Michael Barnett
Summer is essentially over and children are back in school. For many families, schools provide breakfast and lunch for their children. This is a good thing. It alleviates both a financial burden for families as well as ensures that at-risk children receive balanced meals. The cost of back-to-school preparation has taken its toll on many of our clients and their families. Typically the end of the month we see an increase in the demand for emergency food. Food stamp dollars run short and families are faced with a gap, or need, until they receive the next month’s benefit. As a result of purchasing school clothing and supplies, the demand for food has skyrocketed. TJFS is fortunate to have a generous donor that steps up and helps us with the purchase of protein (peanut butter and tuna) for our food bags. I cannot express our gratitude enough to this donor. We are in critical need of cereal, canned vegetables and canned fruit. The next time you are in a food store, and you see a buy-one-get-one (BOGO) offer for any of these items, please consider a donation to TJFS. We provide emergency food bags to anyone who requests one and our inventory is nearly depleted. With assistance from the community, and TJFS’ dollars, we will meet the demand.