Summer begins across Roseville, Rocklin, El Dorado County, Placer County and Nevada County
Roseville, Calif. – For most kids, the last day of school means freedom and pool days, sleepovers, and a whole stretch of summer ahead.
For thousands of children across El Dorado, Nevada and Placer counties, the last day of school means something else. It means the breakfasts and lunches they counted on for nine months disappear overnight.
At Feeding the Foothills, we see it every summer. The lines at our PantryToGo distributions grow longer. Parents who stretched every paycheck during the school year start choosing between groceries and the electric bill in 95-degree heat. Kids who got two reliable meals at school now get one, or none.
Educators have a name for what happens next, they call it the "summer slide." Children lose reading and math skills they worked all year to build, and the gap can set them back months. The research is clear: a hungry child cannot learn. Hunger steals focus, memory and the energy it takes to keep up.
What looks like an academic problem is also a nutrition problem. And that is something our community can solve together.
All summer long, our team keeps fresh produce, kid-friendly snacks and pantry staples moving to families across the three counties we serve. We work alongside more than 100 partner agencies. We run drive-thru PantryToGo distributions at 10 locations every month. We pack snacks small enough to tuck in a backpack and stock shelves with the foods kids actually eat.
We do this work because every child in our foothills deserves a full plate. Every parent deserves the dignity of feeding their family without shame. And every neighbor deserves to know that when the school year ends, they are not left to figure it out alone.
This is only possible because neighbors keep showing up for one another. Last month, postal carriers collected more than 10,500 pounds of food across Roseville and Rocklin during the USPS Stamp Out Hunger drive. Charles Schwab employees spent a Saturday packing boxes in our warehouse. First Tech Federal Credit Union purchased, packaged and donated nearly 10,000 shelf-stable meals in a single push. The Nugget Markets team volunteered in our warehouse and has stood beside us for years. None of these partners had to do any of it. They chose to.
That is the spirit that keeps a kid fed in July.
Our shelves need to be ready before the final bell rings. A gift today, in any amount, becomes meals on a family table within days.
Here is what a summer gift can do:
● $15 provides healthy snacks for three students.
● $35 dollars provides fresh fruit and vegetables for a family of four for a week.
● $75 dollars covers fresh produce, high-protein foods, pantry staples and snacks for a family of four for a week.
And every dollar stretches into six meals through our partnership with Feeding America, where Feeding the Foothills is proud to be one of only 200 member food banks in the country.
Summer is not a quiet season for us. It is the season when need climbs and resources thin. School meals stop. Food drives slow. Federal cuts keep coming. But the kids are still here. The families are still here. And so are we.
If you have given before, thank you. If you are giving for the first time, welcome to a community that takes care of its own.
You can make a gift at feedingthefoothills.org or send it to our office at 8284 Industrial Ave. in Roseville. Every contribution keeps a child in our foothills fed, focused and ready to walk back into a classroom in August. Ready to learn. Ready to grow. Ready to keep going.
With gratitude,
Dave Martinez
Executive Director, Feeding the Foothills