Stewart’s Helps Keep Local BOCES Students & Families Fed

We would like to say a huge THANK YOU to Stewart’s Shops and loyal Stewart’s customers for their incredible generosity and choosing us as a recipient of a Holiday Match Grant, which we are so excited to be able to put toward our continued support of the Meals with a Mission program at Jeff-Lewis BOCES!

Since 1986, Stewart’s has collected and matched donations in their shops from Thanksgiving until Christmas, and the program has now allocated over $39 million since the program’s inception – wow! All Stewart’s Holiday Match funds support children under 18 years of age in their market areas, so we felt that it would be a great fit to apply our grant to a wonderful program that helps to feed local students and their families!

In the Meals with a Mission Program, students prepare nutritious meals, freeze them, and then send them home with under-resourced peers, providing them with meals on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Behind the scenes, we at United Way of Northern New York are proud to sponsor such an amazing program and love to deliver ingredients and supplies as needed.

Whether a family is struggling financially, or a caregiver is unwell, the support is there. Meals with a Mission extends beyond preparing food, it’s also about empowering students. From understanding ingredients to labeling containers, students are actively involved in every step of the process, and the program encourages collaboration across classrooms, fostering a sense of camaraderie and shared purpose.

Once again, we are grateful to Stewart’s for empowering us to be able to bolster the support for Meals with a Mission and to the generous customers who helped to make this grant possible. To learn more about the Stewart’s Holiday Match and community giving, visit https://www.stewartsshops.com/community-giving