Trinity’s ‘Friday Fill-up!’ program expands to Tyler Elementary

On Friday, Dec. 14, the “Friday Fill-up!’ program provided 25 food kit bags to Tyler Elementary school students in the Van Buren Public Schools.
This program, sponsored by Trinity Episcopal Church in Belleville, grew over the summer to provide a weekend’s worth of food to 50 schoolchildren at high risk for food insecurity at Rawsonville Elementary School.
With the emergency needs at Rawsonville met, the “Friday Fill-up!” program secured funding to provide for students at Tyler. School staff and faculty said they are very excited to have this program serve their students, said Ian Twiss, Trinity pastor.
Each weekend throughout the school year each child receives a bag filled with six meals, veggie and fruit cups, and at least three snacks. To date, more than 7,500 meals and 4,000 snacks have been provided. With the expansion to Tyler, an additional 11,500 meals and 6,000 snacks will be given from January to June, completely free of charge to the students.
The local Lions, Kiwanis, and Rotary clubs have thrown themselves into support for this outreach program. The groups have all given generously to the program and provide vital volunteers for packing up the food kits and doing the delivery runs to the schools themselves, said Pastor Twiss.
If members of the public would like to participate, the next packing party will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 5, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 11575 Belleville Road, Belleville. Volunteers are always needed, Twiss said.