Hungry Harps: Champions for Kids & Dole - Back To School Snacks Project

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias®, Dole, and Champions for Kids #cbias #Dole4Kids

Have you ever wondered how you could give back to your community? I used to rack my brain thinking of ways that I could help out, but never came up with anything that would make an actual difference. Then I found Champions for Kids. They are a wonderful organization that comes up with clever ideas each month for helping out the kids in your local community. It's genius and I love it. Their goal is to mobilize people across America, hopefully 20 million by the year 2020, to help out children in need. This month they teamed up with Dole to focus on the need for nutritious, non-perishable foods that school children can pack in their lunches. I jumped on board with this project and got ready to find some Dole Fruit Bowls and Dole Squish'ems to donate healthy snacks for kids to a local organization!

I knew right off the bat that I was going to be donating to our local food back, Orangevale Food Bank. It was formed by members of the community, to help out the community. They provide food to a few hundred families a month and sometimes have a hard time fulfilling everybody's needs, such as last summer when they ran out of food. It is heart-breaking to know there were families in need of food, but were unable to get it from a local organization. Orangevale Food Bank is where I donate any & all food I have to contribute!

It's a crucial time of year for these types of donations, as school is starting up again and some families are in need of items to pack their kiddos for bagged lunches. Did you ever "brown bag" it for school lunch? I sure did and I was lucky that my parents were able to provide me with every food group,but not everyone is lucky like I was. Some kids will go days without eating any fruit - and that is heartbreaking. Kids should be eating 2 servings of fruit a day and by donating Dole products, we can help those that aren't able to meet that amount on their own. I love watching my kids eat and get full off nutritious food and it warms my heart to know there is something I can do for another child who may not normally get these items.

We all know what Dole Fruit Bowls are, right?

They are a classic for the kiddos and perfect for a donation to a local food pantry. The Orangevale Food Bank has a Current Needs list on their site and canned fruit is currently at #1. I grabbed 10 in several different varities; Cherry Mixed Fruit, Diced Apples, Diced Peaches, Diced Pears, Mandarin Oranges, Mixed Fruit, Pineapple Tidbits and Tropical Fruit. Each Dole Fruit Bowl, packed with all natural fruit and 100% juice, is one full serving of fruit and is a great source of vitamin C.

Have you heard about Dole Squish'ems yet?

These are such fun for kiddos!! Dole Squish'ems are pouches that are packed with 100% fruit - basically, Dole takes whole fruits and squish'em into a pouch. Cute play on words, huh? The current varieties include Apple, Apple Strawberry and Apple Mixed Berry. Dole Squish'ems are BPA free, GMO free, gluten free, circle u kosher, only 60 calories! They are great for school lunches and such a fun addition to our donation - I am thinking they are certainly going to put a smile on some kiddos faces. :)

I picked up 10 boxes of Dole Fruit Bowls and 10 boxes of Dole Fruit Squish'ems from my local Walmart. I posted my shopping trip on Google+, with lots of pics of all the fun Dole products I found on my shopping trip.

The organization we donated to, Orangevale Food Bank, is only available to accept donation on site every Thursday but has a few donation drop off locations around town. My oldest son and I loaded up our donation into the car and took off to donate the healthy snacks for kids.

We ended up at True Blue Auto Care and put our donation into a drop-off container. I love having my big boy help me with donations, it's great talking to him about what we are doing and why. It warms my heart to see it click with him and him understand it and that he has compassion for those less fortunate than himself.

You may be wondering how I can justify going out and spending money to help others,but it's real easy. There are things that my family indulges in, things like coffee from a coffee shop or new release Blu Ray movies - so we cut out those fun things for a couple weeks. It may sound like a long time to not have anything special for ourselves, but 2 weeks goes by like there is no tomorrow around our house. With 4 kids, I am barely able to keep track of the days as it is! Trust me when I tell you that dropping off a donation to help less fortunate kids feels a thousand times better than enjoying a Hazelnut White Mocha - trust me.