Providing Ross County school children with nutritious, easy-to-prepare, shelf-stable food on weekends.
The Mighty Active Pack (M.A.P.) Club is a program that provides shelf-stable food for children, in food-insecure homes throughout Ross County school districts. Students are provided with food bags distributed each week throughout the school year. These bags usually contain nut butter, boxed macaroni and cheese, canned vegetables and fruit, canned soups, canned pasta, crackers, prepackaged snacks, and a full-sized box of cereal. Packs may also contain bread, fresh produce, and other items when available. For program information and community impact results, download a program brochure.
Food insecurity is defined as: whether a person has consistent access to an adequate amount of quality food to live an active healthy lifestyle (USDA 2016).
16.1% (2,650) children in Ross County are food insecure (Feeding America 2022)
The United Way of Ross County and the Ross County Hunger Coalition are partnered with the Mid-Ohio Food Bank to help these children receive nutritious and easy-to-prepare weekend food. Free and reduced-priced lunch and breakfast programs create a regular source of food for school age children, but these vital programs do not extend into the weekends. M.A.P. Club strives to help fill the weekend's food gap.
HOW DO STUDENTS PARTICIPATE IN THIS PROGRAM?
Teachers and staff at participating schools refer students whom they believe may be chronically hungry, utilizing a food insecurity checklist of indicators. These students meet financial eligibility standards and a permission slip is signed by parents of these children for them to receive the M.A.P. Club weekend bags.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
DONATE:
A donation of just $9 supplies one Mighty Active Pack.
A donation of $315 provides one hungry child with weekend food for an entire school year.
VOLUNTEER:
Volunteer to help fill the packs on Thursday evenings.