KINGSVILLE, Tx — During winter break, school kids say good-bye to tests, study time and homework. But sadly some also say goodbye to the only meals they may get.
A Kingsville flower shop owner is making sure children in foster care and their families have meals not just on Christmas, but throughout their holiday breaks.
Jennifer Cash owns Flowers with Attitude, but she also organizes a fundraiser every year.
She works with local school districts and gets family and friends through social media to raise funds to buy holiday meals for foster care families.
This year, they raised almost $4,000 and spent all of it to feed 31 families. But they were also able to get more than just food.
“Other things like paper towels, paper plates, dish soap, a ton of fruits and vegetables. We raised $1000 more than we did last year so I was able to spread it a little bit more and got some good quality stuff,” Cash said.
The idea started 11 years ago, when Jennifer was having dinner with friends. The connection? Her friends are parents and the family they treated were parents to be.
“He bought them dinner. It just warmed my heart that he was just giving back to somebody who he saw was having a child and he felt blessed that he had his own kids,” Cash said.
The first year of the fundraiser, they raised $3,400. Each year it grows bigger and bigger. This year they raised $3,711 and spent $3,800. Jennifer, some friends and CASA volunteers started shopping for all kinds of meals early Wednesday morning.
Those items were then loaded up into several cars and taken to Brush County CASA, where helpers like Jennifer's son, Cooper, unloaded and separated evenly to the 31 families they’re feeding this year.
“I’m mostly in charge of taking the cart and putting it in line and I come help and put all the stuff out,” Cooper said.
The partnership couldn’t be done without the help of H-E-B and Brush Country CASA. Volunteers delivered bags of food as well as Christmas presents on Wednesday, Dec. 18.
“It’s like a drive for me especially when you're doing it for a cause. Through the whole process of this I always talk about that normalcy and I want every children to feel as normal as possible during this holiday season, even out and away from school or their families,” CASA Outreach Coordinator Jaylene Garza said.
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