Moretti's, Barrington Charity Team Up To Feed Hungry Children

Press release from Barrington Children’s Charities:

Oct. 24, 2020

Moretti’s is proud to join with Barrington Children’s Charities in the launch of its newly branded weekend food distribution program. The new Packs of Plenty (P.O.P.) program is the charity’s proprietary program and replaces the charity’s former Blessings in a Backpack program. “We recently made the decision to oversee and manage all elements of our food program. As the number of children in need continues to grow, this change helps us provide more food to children living in food insecure homes,” states charity co-founder, Darby Hills. The P.O.P. launch includes a logo and branding roll out across all the charity’s marketing efforts.

Moretti’s will be providing the venue for the food packing and storage at its “Moretti’s Unique Events” private party facility in Hoffman Estates. The extensive banquet kitchen, food storage and staging space at Moretti’s Unique Events will enable BCC’s new P.O.P. program to operate efficiently and safely, to prepare meal packs for more than 800 participating students, about 3,500 bags per monthly packing session.

Moretti’s owners Mark and Jessica Hoffmann are board members with Barrington Children’s Charities and Jessica a weekly packer with the former “Blessings” packing program. As the pandemic imposed greater food needs but limitations on volunteer packing, the need for a professional packing and food storage space became urgent. The Hoffmanns offered the Morettis Unique Events space in Hoffman Estates to use for the monthly P.O.P. packing events as well as for food deliveries, storage and packed food/bin storage prior to the bag delivery to District 220 children each month. Located directly next to Moretti's Ristorante in Hoffman Estates, MUE offers banquet spaces for private parties and has enough space to accommodate the food and bin storage for P.O.P, and provides the ability to socially distance the volunteers for P.O.P.’s packing events. Offering a safe environment for P.O.P volunteers was an utmost concern. With the ongoing need to provide food for our communities' food insecure children, the Moretti’s team is proud to step up create a safe space for P.O.P. and its vital mission.

Since 2010, Barrington Children’s Charities has provided food packs to food insecure students (on the federal free and reduced-price meal program) living in the Barrington School District 220 area. These children receive food for 38 weekends during the school year. Additional food support was added this past summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The P.O.P. program will help fill the nutritional gap by providing a pack full of nutritious food for the children to consume each weekend. “Our volunteers sort and pack over $100,000 in food annually for the more than 800 participating students,” says Sue Hyde, P.O.P. program volunteer coordinator.

Barrington Children’s Charities funds and coordinates the food packs for students enrolled in the program at all eight District 220 elementary schools, early learning center, two middle schools and the high school. To learn more about the charity’s essential needs programs or to volunteer, visit the charity’s website at BarringtonChildrensCharities.com.

This press release was produced by Barrington Children’s Charities. The views expressed here are the author's own.