Why Make Kids' Bags?
We at Open Table are all for More Love. Less Hunger. According to the Greater Boston Food Bank 2024 report, 1 in 3 households with children in Massachusetts experienced child-level food insecurity. This means that a child was hungry, skipped a meal, or did not eat for a whole day because there wasn’t enough money for food.
We distribute up to 250 Kids’ Bags each week as part of our mission to address hunger in our community. Donations of Kids’ Bags are vital to supporting the youngest in-need in our local area. Your donation of any number of Kids’ Bags is appreciated!
What is a Kids' Bag?
A Kids’ Bag provides joy and kid-friendly meals, snacks, and beverages for a child aged 12 and under. The food, decorated bag, and little non-food treat in the bag work in harmony to make each child feel special and bring a positive vibe to their food pantry trip. The food supplements the ⅔ fresh and ⅓ other foods provided to the family by Open Table and provides kid-friendly items the family might not receive as part of their weekly order but the child can enjoy and prepare themselves as needed. It helps meet their hunger in as nutritious, filling, and kid-friendly way as shelf-stable food can allow.
Helping Feels Good
Children love to help – it feels good. Putting together Kids’ Bags is a fun, hands-on group activity for children of all ages. It helps them build empathy, learn about hunger in an age appropriate manner, and gives them a meaningful way to help others in their community.
Educating Kids on Food Insecurity
Making Kids’ Bags with young people presents the opportunity to build empathy and help children understand food insecurity. Open Table has collated a few resources for different age groups to help you.
Elementary – Read them a story. You may opt to borrow one of the books shown below from Open Table when you register. Your Open Table Community Coordinator can arrange delivery/pick-up of a book with you. Or check out a story from the library – librarians are a great resource. The Concord Library has curated a list of books – use the link or ask them.
Middle & High School – Activities and role-playing are great for this age. See our Resources page for different ideas.
Getting Started
Register your Kids’ Bag activity with us! Once you register your activity, an Open Table volunteer community coordinator will contact you and work with you to ensure you have a fun and successful activity.
Making the Bags - It’s as Easy as 1-2-3!
Suggested Kids' Bag Contents
Each bag should include the following shelf-stable, packaged item(s):
*Included in the free Starter Kit.
The Joy Factor
These optional, non-food items make the child feel special and often help make the trip to the food pantry more enjoyable.
No Cost Ideas – A fun note or your child’s favorite riddle to bring smiles and laughs.
Other Ideas – A surprise item such as a pencil, eraser, small notebook, stickers, washable marker, slime or other fun item for a child aged 12 and under.
Free Starter Kits
Open Table often has access to food items that we ask to be included in each Kids’ Bag. We welcome the opportunity to supply these to your group free of charge, for you to pack in addition to the items you collect. This helps you, our donor:
- Focus your group’s resources on the other food items (see Fill the Bags) that we cannot easily obtain and
- Keep the cost of this activity down for you.
The Starter Kit (subject to availability) includes:
- paper bags with handles
- oatmeal packets
- shelf-stable milk
- juice boxes
- fruit and/or applesauce cups
Your Open Table Community Coordinator can work with you if you wish to put together food bags but would like help procuring any of the other items on the list (see Fill the Bags): We want to ensure this activity is accessible to all while also meeting the needs of our youngest clients.
Your Open Table Community Coordinator will organize delivery/pick-up of the Starter Kit with you.
*Starter Kit and contents are subject to change based on availability
Delivering Kids' Bags
Kid’s bags can be delivered to our 33 Main Street, Maynard location any time during our regular business hours. If you have a smaller number of Kid’s bags, they can be left at any of our donation bin locations. If you need help with delivery of your donation, please contact us at [email protected]. Thank you!
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