For a few kids, the meals they get at school are the only meals they’ll get during the day. So what happens when it’s the weekend?

“We noticed kids were going hungry and teachers noticed, so we decided that we were going to fundraise and eventually start our program which is now called Kelliher Kits,” says Rileigh Hughes, a 10^th grader at KHS, who created Kelliher Kits.

“We raised money, fundraised, asked for grants and now every Thursday we pack bags for five students to be fed throughout the weekend,” adds Triann Krekelberg, an 11^th grader at KHS, who also created Kelliher Kits.

The girls chose the Kelliher Kits program as their project for “Family, Career, Community, Leaders Of America,” or FCCLA.

“We have about 21 members that are in our FCCLA chapter and they pretty much do this all after school, during their study halls, things like that,” says Clare Kupcho, the FCCLA advisor at KHS.

Each kit consists of two to three breakfast and lunch meals, plus a few healthy snacks and a beverage.

Krekelberg says, “We’ve heard stories from teachers saying that students are happy to be in school to get meals and now that they get meals on Saturdays and Sundays, they don’t have to worry about getting meals on Mondays, and they’re more focused in school because they’re not worried about getting food.”

The students who receive the kits are kept confidential, so the girls do not know who they’re packing meals for. Administrators say the families who receive the kits have had nothing but good things to say.

“When I’ve talked with the families, they’re supportive of our efforts and they are hopeful and when we’ve gone and done surveys that this is something that the community feels is a need, so those families are very grateful for having the school show them support when they’re in a time of need,” says Carly Amsden, school interventionist at KHS.

One day, these students will graduate, but they hope the legacy they’ve left at KHS will live on. They say some of their younger peers have already started showing interests in working on the Kelliher Kits someday.

“I hope that other students learn that helping their community is important and it might teach them good people skills because they’re going to have to work with other people to do this project,” says Riley Dreher, a 10^th grader at KHS, who also created Kelliher Kits.

By — Shirelle Moore