Team Mari #OpSnack Summer Support

Hi, I'm Mari. I am 16 years old and a kid from Flint, MI. The world more commonly knows me as Little Miss Flint, even though I'm not that little anymore.

Since I was 8 years old I have hosted several events for Flint area kids, including events for Back to School, Christmas, Halloween and Easter, on top of my ongoing book drive and other projects I do for the community. My events focus on the kids and making sure they have not only what they need, but a ton of cool extras as well. If I dream it up, we figure out how to do it.

And while all of my big projects are a ton of fun, there is a smaller project I started back in September that has grown more and more weekly. #OpSnack begun when we had a few local kids coming by asking if we had any extra snacks. We found out that there are several families in our community that are struggling to make ends meet and to make sure that they have food on their tables. So that's how Operation Snack aka #OpSnack was born. We distribute snack bags and meal bags to local kids and teens so they arent going to bed hungry (and arent stealing food from the local store). Since September we have grown to take care of over 50 kids/teens from not only our neighborhood but also other neighborhoods in our ward.

While we use an ongoing wishlist to help with getting snacks and food items, we have began to take request from our kids and have been expanding to include more fresh food options like fresh fruits, yogurts, fresh veggies and more. This summer we plan on doing ice cream from the local ice cream truck supply store twice a week (buying in bulk is way cheaper then from an ice cream truck), and to also keep popsicles in the deep freezer for the kids every day.

Thank you in advance for supporting my project and helping to keep local kids/teens fed.