Editors note: The benefit concert has been canceled. Tukwila Weekend SnackPack is planning other events for National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, Nov. 11-19, which will be announced when they are finalized.
The Tukwila Weekend SnackPack Program kicks off the National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week with a benefit concert from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 12, at the Foster High School Performing Arts Center, 4242 S. 144th St.
The Let No Child Go Hungry in Tukwila benefit concert will feature Nadia Lanfranconi and Morgan Dorr with the band Boys Like Girls. Lanfranconi is an Italian singer/songwriter who lives in Los Angeles and performs Americana/country music. John Maynard and his All-Star Band will also perform, and KIRO TV’s Tracy Taylor-Turner will emcee the event.
Tickets, which cost $15 for general admission or $50 for a VIP meet and greet, can be purchased at nadia.brownpapertickets.com. Donate to the Tukwila Weekend SnackPack’s GoFundMe campaign at gofundme.com/LetNoChildGoHungryInTukwila.
For the 2016-2017 academic year, 374 students enrolled in the Tukwila School District were struggling with housing insecurity. This represents more than 12 percent of the student population, and in one elementary school more than 20 percent of the students met the federal criteria for homelessness as defined in the McKinney-Vento Act.
During the week, these students receive breakfast and lunch at school, but during weekends when the family is scrambling to find housing, regular meals take a back seat.
The Tukwila Weekend SnackPack Program was launched in February 2015 to provide weekend meals for McKinney-Vento students at Thorndyke Elementary. Since then, the organization has distributed more than 50,000 meals, serving all three elementary schools in Tukwila.
This fall, the SnackPack program also will serve Showalter Middle School and Foster High School. Plans are in the works for a summer mobile lunch program.
More than 100 volunteers worked last year to provide meals to up to 140 students each week.
