JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Thousands of kids all over Jacksonville spend their weekends hungry. In fact, Northeast Florida is more concerning than the national average when it comes to Title I living. Nationally, about 1 in 5 kids have food insecurity. In NE FL, nearly 1 out of 3 elementary school kids are in need of meals.
Restoration Church is teaming up with Hunger Fight to present "Messiah For Hunger Fight," a Christmas benefit concert series featuring Handel's "Messiah." All donations will go to Hunger Fight to help combat child hunger in schools in Jacksonville.
“There are four servings, four meals in this packet, and this packet costs just one dollar,” said Kusic, holding up one of the meal packages provided by volunteers at Hunger Fight.
He says it’s important people know that 100% of the donations from the concert will help combat child hunger in Jacksonville.
“Kids will leave school on Friday and start a 65-hour clock not eating until they return to school on Monday for breakfast,” said Kusic
He says nearly all of the elementary schools in the Arlington area qualify as 100% Title 1.
“It’s hard to comprehend it, this is America, but it’s happening in our backyard,” he said.
Hunger Fight supplies kids with easy-prep, nutritional meals throughout Northeast Florida.
To continue to meet the demand, they are asking for people to buy tickets to the concert, which start at just $5 unless they want to donate more at MessiahforHungerfight.org.
Their goal is $50,000.
The concert will take place Dec 8 7:00 pm and Dec 9 5:00 pm at Restoration Church on Southside Blvd.
They also hope to get families involved in the packaging process for the meals too.
“You can’t get better than this, this is Christmas at its finest, it really is.”