The Riehs family (Lorie and Arno, and their daughter Katelyn) loves Halloween, and they love planning fun Halloween parties. But for the second year in a row, they decided to make their annual Little Goblins Halloween Party an event with a cause. They asked their friends to consider supporting Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s BackPack Buddies program, which provides weekend meals to children in need across the Triangle area, reaching almost 1500 hungry kids. The Riehs family knows that we can reach more. They offered to match each dollar donated up to a total of $500….and together they raised almost a thousand dollars, plus pantry items for BackPacks! In addition, Lorie Riehs’s employer, Cisco, has a matching program, which brings the grand total up to $1500! That will ensure that at least 4 more children will have weekend meals for an entire year!
Lorie Riehs and her husband Arno decided to support Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s BackPack Buddies program after Lorie became involved stuffing BackPacks at a work team event with Blue Cross Blue Shield North Carolina. Lorie says,
“Providing healthy food options to children in our community touched our family, especially given we have a 3 year old at home. As first time parents, we also wanted creative ways to encourage our daughter to help others and give back to her community. Seeing the children arrive at our home, dressed in costumes and helping parents carry canned food, is priceless. My greatest wish is that our family provides learning opportunities for the children and parents that join us, as well as encouragement for each member of our community to come up with their own creative ways to fight to end hunger. We are already looking forward to next year!”
Efforts like those of the Riehs are truly inspiring to us at Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, and make it clear to us both that we are a part of a wonderful and caring community, and that it is by all working together that we will truly be able to end hunger.
You can find out more about BackPack Buddies on our website here, and start your own fundraiser here!