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SARATOGA SPRINGS — With summer break just around the corner, kids and families who rely on free and reduced lunch programs during the school year often become more vulnerable to food insecurity during school vacations. That’s why Fingerpaint, a marketing agency headquartered in Saratoga Springs, New York, is asking people to embrace their inner lunch lady this summer to help combat hunger in the communities surrounding each of their offices. Fingerpaint launched Operation Lunch Lady in partnership with The Pack Shack on April 16. Knowing that kids often face an increased risk of hunger during summer break and food pantry donations often dwindle, the team came up with a creative way to raise awareness and funds using the beloved unsung hero, the lunch lady, to get people excited to help.
With a commitment to matching up to $15,000, Fingerpaint will raise the necessary funds to purchase nutritious and easyto-prepare meals from The Pack Shack to donate to three hunger relief organizations in the communities surrounding Fingerpaint offices in Saratoga Springs, NY, Conshohocken, Penn., and Scottsdale, Ariz. The effort marks Fingerpaint’s second annual company-wide Philanthropy Day, during which its offices will close on June 29 to allow employees to work together simultaneously at each location toward a common goal. Last year, they raised more than $11,000 to help kids in foster care. This year, the company hopes to raise a total of $30,000 (including the company match) to tackle food insecurity, which will end up providing more than 65,000 meals across the country. The Pack Shack, a Midwest-based humanitarian organization, will send crews to each Fingerpaint office to host “Feed the Funnel Parties.” Fingerpainters will get their lunch lady on, donning hairnets, aprons, and gloves, cranking up awesome music, and creating thousands of meals from dry ingredients in an assembly line. The assembly line will include: funnels (where ingredients are poured into a funnel to fill a bag), scales (where bags are weighed for accuracy), heat sealers (where bags are sealed), and boxes (where the bags are put into cases). Once packed, the meals will be given to local hunger relief organizations in New York, Pennsylvania and Arizona.
“We know that the risk for food insecure families goes up during school breaks, so we wanted to find a way to raise awareness and work together to feel like we can make an impact. We figured a Feed the Funnel party would be both fun and productive, and we can make sure it feeds families in our surrounding communities,” said Bo Goliber, who heads up Philanthropy efforts at Fingerpaint.
