For almost 20 years, Feed the Children — the non-profit organization based in Oklahoma City — has delivered a truckload of food and other items to Ashland, which has been distributed by River Cities Harvest to non-profit agencies in Boyd and Greenup counties that provide food and other necessities to lower income residents.
On Thursday, Feed the Children expanded its presence in this region by delivering a truckload of food, backpacks and books to the Carter County Board of Education’s central warehouse in Olive Hill. The 1,920 backpacks filled with basic school supplies and hygiene items like toothpaste, the 1,920 bags containing 15 items of ready-to-eat food, and the 120 cases of books will be distributed to school children in Carter, Boyd, Elliott, Greenup and Rowan counties.
Marsha McDavid of Carter County CAReS — a relatively new program modeled after CAReS in Boyd County — learned about the program through her research and asked Feed the Children to come to the area.
Though Feed the Children mainly deals with hunger issues, “we also think it’s just as important to feed minds,” said Erin Carlstrom, director of education programs for Feed the Children.
The Feed the Children trucks that have been coming to Ashland each July since the early 1990s also include non-food items that have been distributed in Boyd and Greenup counties through their annual readifest program at the start of each school year.
The supplies are designed for children who are homeless, Carlstrom said. While there are not many children in northeastern Kentucky who do not have a place to stay, there are many households with more than one family, often grandparents housing their children and grandchildren.
Feed the Children’s annual visits to Ashland have been made possible through the support of Naomi Judd, who is close friends with Feed the Children founder and director David Jones. We commend Marsha McDavid for working to expand Feed the Children’s positive impact in this region. While the food certainly is needed, the hygiene items and basic school supplies may be needed even more because those are essential items that can’t be purchased with food stamps. And books encourage reading, the most valuable skill a child can possess.
