We are happy to report that our Read & Feed program was a great success for our third year!  We hosted 24 second and third grade students from area schools who had been identified as needing assistance with reading.  We hoped to “jump-start” their fall schooling by providing them with six mornings of reading experiences as well as food for breakfast and lunch.  We used most of our church to have the students read to us or to trained dogs, to have us read to them, to play word games, to sing songs and play games using music, to create various craft and science projects, and to have lots of fun!  We sent food home for them and their siblings for the remainder of the two weeks.  Volunteers created a book bag for each student; we used these bags each day and then sent them home filled with books that were contributed.  Parents and students were excited and enthused about the program.

We want to thank the nearly 50 volunteers from our church and St. Jude’s who made this outreach possible as well as to the two congregations who paid for this program out of their mission budgets.  We also want to thank Home Depot for supplying bird feeders and pencil box kits as well as volunteers to assist in their assembly.  We want to thank Jet’s Pizza and Uncle Ray’s Dairyland for contributing the food for our final lunch; it was a huge hit with the students!