Chambana Sun

Illinois Athletics is collaborating with the Champaign-Urbana charity, Feeding Our Kids, to address food insecurity in the community. This partnership includes donation opportunities at Illinois men's and women's basketball games and a service day involving Fighting Illini student-athletes and staff.

Food donation drives are scheduled for five home basketball games starting January 8. The games include matchups against Penn State, Iowa, USC, Michigan State, and Maryland. On January 13-14, staff and student-athletes from the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics will assist at the Eastern Illinois Food Bank by assembling food packages for local schools.

Feeding Our Kids is seeking donations of individually wrapped items such as fruit cups, peanut butter, raisins, pudding, squeezable yogurt, mac n cheese, Chef Boyardee products, rice packets, granola bars, canned soups, Vienna sausages among others.

According to Feeding America's Map the Meal Gap project data, Champaign County has a 10.5% overall food insecurity rate with a 12.2% rate among children. This affects nearly 27,000 residents.

Feeding Our Kids is a Champaign-Urbana based nonprofit that provides nourishing food to school children on weekends and holidays throughout the school year. The organization relies heavily on volunteers who pack and deliver food to over 40 schools and programs in the area. School social workers play a key role in identifying children who need these services.