CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Illinois Athletics is set to partner with Champaign-Urbana based charity Feeding Our Kids for a special community service project to help the food insecure in the community. The initiative will include several donation opportunities for fans at Illinois men's and women's basketball games as well as a community service day for Fighting Illini student-athletes and staff.
Illinois Athletics will host food donation drives at five home basketball games beginning Jan. 8:
- Jan. 8 – men's basketball vs. Penn State
- Jan. 9 – women's basketball vs. Iowa
- Jan. 11 – men's basketball vs. USC
- Jan. 19 – women's basketball vs. Michigan State
- Jan. 23 – men's basketball vs. Maryland
On Jan. 13-14, Division of Intercollegiate Athletics staff and student-athletes will spend two days at the Eastern Illinois Food Bank assembling food packages and delivering them to local schools.
Feeding Our Kids is requesting individually wrapped items such as fruit cups, peanut butter, raisins, pudding, squeezable yogurt, mac n cheese, Chef Boyardee, rice packets, granola bars, canned soups, Vienna sausages, etc. See full list here.
According to Feeding America's Map the Meal Gap project, Champaign County suffers from a 10.5% overall food insecurity rate and a 12.2% food insecurity rate for children. This translates to nearly 27,000 residents of Champaign County living in food insecurity.
ABOUT FEEDING OUR KIDS
Feeding Our Kids is a Champaign-Urbana area 501(c)(3) which provides nourishing food to food insecure school children on weekends and school holidays throughout the school year in the Champaign-Urbana area. The organization primarily runs on volunteers who pack food in bags for and deliver food to over 40 schools and childhood programs. Social workers in the schools work hard to identify which kids need services.
