School Fuel presented Berry Aviation with a token of appreciation for providing 36,000 sacks for the entire 2020-2021 school year. Berry Aviation President Stan Finch and other Berry staff were on hand to receive the award. Berry Aviation’s worldwide headquarters is located at the San Marcos Regional Airport, relocating here in 1993 from Austin. The San Marcos operation includes a FBO as well as government services and cargo capability. Berry Aviation and its staff have supported School Fuel’s preparation and packing, Fun Run and other activities for a number of years.
The brown kraft bags are used weekly to hold the prepackaged, easily opened nutritious food to help hungry children be ready to learn on Monday morning. This year School Fuel is supporting 1,000 children, grades K-7, in the San Marcos Consolidated ISD. The goal is to enable students to achieve their academic potential and stay in school to graduate.
School Fuel began in 2013 as a pilot program with 31 children who came to school on Monday too hungry to learn. The change in the students’ participation on Monday after they began receiving the sack of individually packaged, easily opened nutritious food was remarkable so funds were raised to support more than 200 food insecure children in the fall of 2013.
Since that start, School Fuel has grown to provide for 1,000 children including sixth and seventh graders. Statistics show that food insecure students often fall behind in school and drop out before graduating. Without a sound education it will be difficult for these students to find meaningful employment so the goal is to provide food support that will enable hungry children to be successful at school.
School Fuel is a (501(c) (3) nonprofit that is managed and operated entirely by volunteers—there are no employees so contributions are used to purchase food. It costs only $215 to support one child for an entire school year and School Fuel hopes to continue adding hungry students each year so that all the students in the SMCISD who need weekend food support can be helped.
New procedures are in place to provide safety for all the volunteers. The work has been organized to provide for social distancing and the number of workers is limited. Volunteers wear gloves and masks and are encouraged to be diligent about handwashing. Anyone wishing to volunteer must sign up ahead of time using SignUpGenius.
To learn more about School Fuel and how you can help, see the website at www.schoolfuelsanmarcos.org.
