Lake Stevens nonprofit doing fundraiser to help feed children

Published 1:30 am Friday, July 15, 2016

LAKE STEVENS — A nonprofit that started with the delivery of Christmas gifts to one hungry little girl has become a 30-person operation in a portable crammed with food for more than 160 kids.

The Hungry Hearts Foundation was established as an independent nonprofit in 2015 after five years as Li’l Hungry Hearts, a program under the Lake Stevens Family Resource Center. Volunteers pack bags of donated food for Lake Stevens students to take home on weekends or holiday breaks, when free and reduced-price lunches aren’t available at school. During the summer, they help out with the school district’s free lunch program at noon on weekdays at Hillcrest Elementary.

This summer, the foundation is doing a fundraiser in partnership with Wells Fargo Bank and local businesses. Two stuffed pony toys from the bank, Nellie and El Toro, are going to be racing to see which can raise the most money. The ponies are moved from business to business every few days and people can donate for “Team Nellie” or “Team El Toro.”

The location of the stuffed animals can be tracked at hungryheartsfoundation.com and people are encouraged to share pictures with the ponies on social media using the hashtag #HHFDerby and either #TeamNellie or #TeamElToro.

The fundraiser ends Sept. 9. Money goes toward food and other supplies.

When Hungry Hearts started, it provided food for eight kids at Glenwood Elementary School. Now, there are 160 kids at 10 different schools.

The program’s roots are a teacher’s concern for a bright young student who didn’t have enough to eat.

Six-and-a-half years ago, right before winter break, Tammie Enders learned that one of her third-graders had been moving around a lot. She contacted the girl’s mother to see if she could help get the family Christmas presents.

“When we dropped them off, I realized she’d been going hungry,” Enders said. “They had no food. They had no furniture.”

The girl was a smart, happy student and “you wouldn’t know she was going hungry,” Enders said. “And it just struck me how many kids could be going hungry and we don’t know.”

She wanted to do something about it. She asked Anita Caffee, a dedicated school volunteer whose son had been in her class, to help.

Enders and Caffee remember searching for every spare cupboard or drawer at Glenwood Elementary to store food for the backpack program.

Now the foundation has a temperature controlled portable in front of Lake Stevens Middle School, donated by the district for the nonprofit’s use. Volunteers meet there once a week to load up bags based on their supplies and the dietary needs of the students, said Hungry Hearts CEO Mirza Avdic, who joined the foundation about a year and a half ago. The bags are delivered to schools for pick-up.

Though Hungry Hearts isn’t affiliated with the Lake Stevens School District, the foundation works closely with school officials. Nurses, counselors and teachers help identify students who may need food. It’s up to the families to decide if they’ll sign a form to be part of the program.

Signs a child might not be getting enough food at home include stomachaches, exhaustion, lack of focus or comments about missing meals.

Volunteers are writing down their methods of managing the food and running the nonprofit in hopes that it can be replicated, Avdic said.

“We’re looking to the future,” he said. “We hope that by standardizing our practices, we can pass the playbook on to the next city.”

People can donate online at hungryheartsfoundation.com/donate. They also can help by putting on food drives.

The goal is to give kids the food they need to do well in school and stay healthy at home.

“We have some families who have been with us for years who tell us they don’t need help anymore,” Caffee said. “A lot of times they come back and help us. That’s really rewarding.”

Last year, Enders got an email from the girl whose situation inspired Hungry Hearts. They got together that summer to talk.

The girl has a stable home and is an “A” student in middle school, Enders said. She already is thinking about college.

She’s not hungry anymore.

Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com.