Imagine looking forward to school on Monday just because you know you’ll finally get a solid meal.
That scenario is a reality for one out of every five students in the Anchorage School District. These children leave school Friday knowing they likely won’t get anything to eat until Monday when they come back to class.
CIRI is proud to support The Children’s Lunchbox, a local nonprofit that not only provides free meals for qualifying students in seven Anchorage schools, but sends those students home with a bag of food items to get them through each weekend.
In 2012, CIRI designated The Children’s Lunchbox as a proceed recipient of its Golf Classic – a relationship that led to CIRI advocating for Muldoon Elementary to be added to the schools that benefit from The Children’s Lunchbox program. For more than a decade, CIRI and Muldoon Elementary have been in a School Business Partnership, through which CIRI has provided funding for field trips and academic awards, encouraged other partners to donate school supplies and encouraged its employees to volunteer at the school.
Today, nearly every student at Muldoon Elementary is eligible to receive free food and meals through The Children’s Lunchbox. Since this partnership, Muldoon Elementary principal Leroy Grant has seen significant academic improvement in his students and has experienced fewer disciplinary problems.
“If you’re hungry, you won’t listen to a teacher, no matter how good the teacher is,” Principal Grant said.
