RIFA holds 9th annual Pack the Bus food drive

JACKSON, Tenn. — A local organization is on a mission to fight hunger.

Regional Inter-Faith Association — known for reaching out in the community to fight against hunger — held its Pack the Bus food drive at three grocery store locations around Jackson on Saturday.

“This is RIFA’s ninth annual Pack the Bus food drive benefiting our Snack Backpack Ministry, and so our Snack Backpacks are kid friendly, easy to prepare meals that are handed out to school children on the weekends,” said RIFA Marketing and Events Coordinator Gracie Sloan.

In Madison County alone, one in five children are food insecure, meaning they have little to no food on the weekends. RIFA wants to do something to change that.

“We’re able to serve over 1,200 school children every weekend throughout 14 schools in Jackson-Madison County, and these Snack Backpacks include six meals and two snack items to make sure that they have food when they’re not in school,” Sloan said.

People were able to go inside the store and purchase any food items they’d like to contribute to the organization, as well as any monetary contribution. They then placed them in the basket on there way out.

Volunteers at the food drive say they believe this drive makes a huge impact in our community.

“There are a lot of kids in need. There’s a lot of kids, and especially right now with everything that’s going on, I think this is more important now than ever,” said volunteer Christina Greer.

Sloan says the preferred items to donate would be macaroni and cheese, ravioli, Pop-Tarts and anything else that is easy for children to put together themselves on the weekends.

They say their goal was to have the entire school bus packed with food by the end of the day.

If you would like to donate to RIFA and fight against child hunger, click here.