We are happy to report that our Read & Feed program was a great success for our fourth year!  We hosted 22 second and third grade readers from area elementary schools who had been identified as needing assistance with reading.  We hoped to “jump-start” their fall schooling by providing them with 6 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 and 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 as well as sent them home with books that were contributed by the congregation.

Parents were overwhelmingly positive about the program.  All of the students were excited and enthused to participate.

We want to thank the nearly 50 volunteers from our church and St. Jude’s who made this outreach possible.  Thank you to our congregation for their support of our mission budget that enables this type of outreach.  We also want to thank Home Depot for supplying craft projects 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!