聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 Blake and Stacy Brownridge of Arcola operate Ridgeline Agriservices, a local distributor of Dupont Pioneer seeds. As part of Dupont Pioneer鈥檚 community initiatives they offer funding through their Full Belly! Full Mind! program, which focuses on ensuring children have food to eat in order to concentrate better at school.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 On Friday, Dec. 1, Dan Graf (Community Education Liaison) of Arcola School was very excited to accept the generous donation of $1,500 to support the school鈥檚 breakfast program.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淚n order to operate the school breakfast program we need approximately $4,000 a year, so this donation will go a long ways,鈥� Graf stated.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淚t鈥檚 more than just a breakfast program too. There鈥檚 also snacks set out for the day in both the high school end and the elementary end. Whatever鈥檚 needed. It鈥檚 available to all students, so there鈥檚 no stigma surrounding it and we even have a couple of students who volunteer with the program. They come in early to put the food out, clean up, come up with grocery lists; which has been a huge help to me and they鈥檙e giving back to their school community.鈥�
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淲e also have a school nutrition policy, so we鈥檙e encouraging all the students to eat healthy as well.鈥�
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Nichol added, 鈥淭his program is available through our independent sales agents who work with schools all across Canada.鈥�
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 In 2016 the Full Belly! Full Mind! initiative donated more than $100,000 to support over 50 breakfast and nutrition programs across Canada and 2017 is looking like it will reach even more.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淥ur agency covers from Stoughton to Carlyle, so it鈥檚 nice to be able to give back to local communities,鈥� Stacy explained. 鈥淎rcola is kind of central to that coverage area, so we decided to work with them this first time.鈥�
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 鈥淔ood helps kids stay focused.鈥�
