Thoreau Weekend Food Bag Project

If you are interesting in helping fill weekend bags this year, please email Jonny Hoffner at jonny.hoffner@gmail.com

The Thoreau Weekend Food Bag Program was started to provide weekend food for Thoreau students who receive the federally-funded free or reduced-fee lunch each day. Many of these at-need students arrive at school on Monday morning having received inadequate nutrition over the weekend which presents enormous challenges to the learning environment.

With the closing of schools during the pandemic, the TWFBP was put on hold. The program will resume once schools have reopened. Within our community we have been very fortunate. The Thoreau PTO, with the help of neighbors and many volunteers jumped in to help the families of our at-need students. The PTO is part of a larger organization providing food for students, and their families, of 12 schools, including Thoreau. In the meantime, the steering committee of the TWFBP is working to resume serving Thoreau students when schools reopen.

The steering committee is excited to announce that the TWFBP was the beneficiary of an anonymous $10,000 donation given in honor of Walter W. Engelke, principal for 41 years at Nakoma School (replaced by Thoreau Elementary in the early 1970’s). Some of you may know that Nakoma is a Chippewa word meaning “I do as I promise”. Throughout his career in education, Mr. Engelke never missed an opportunity to remind his students of those words and the responsibility we have to each other. This gift along with the generous donations of all the community organizations will allow an increase in weekly deliveries to 100 students every Friday when school resumes.