Chattanooga children receive meals, Halloween costumes through Dunkin donation

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – The Chattanooga food bank’s newest donation helps put food on the table.

Melissa Blevins is President and CEO of the Chattanooga Food Bank.

She said, “So snack packs are designed for children who are at risk of being hungry on the weekends. Many of our hardworking families’ kids are going to school and they’re being fed at school for breakfast and lunch. Oftentimes on the weekends we recognize that they may not have access to nutritious food so this is one of the most important ways we can reach the children in our communities.”

The food bank has a large reach.

“Those communities span the 20 counties we serve in northwest Georgia and in southeast Tennessee from Grundy County, Rhea county, Sequatchie county, to right here in Hamilton county,” said Blevins.

The new grant will provide over 20,000 meals.

“The Dunkin Childhood Foundation just awarded us $10,000 dollars to help us with Sack Pack programs for 6 of our counties here in Tennessee,” said Blevins. “We recognize any given day one out of six children may not have enough to eat. Funding like this helps us make sure those kids have access to food.”

Not only will almost 4,000 families be served, the grant does a little bit more.

Blevins said, “They also gave us some money for some Halloween costumes this year. Which was super exciting. We were able to go out, and our staff had a good time buying 71 Halloween costumes. We were able to hand them out at our food pantry here in Chattanooga in one day.”

Melissa Blevins is very appreciative of this grant.

She said, “This grant was extra special because we got to do something a little extra for our families by giving them a Halloween costume for kids. There should be some elephants, some Batmans, and maybe some butterflies bought by our friends at Dunkin.”

If you want to volunteer for the Chattanooga Food Bank, you can go to their website: chattfoodbank.org.