Young students in the North Little Rock School District will have additional food to make it through longer school days thanks to donations from the community.
School days were extended by an hour and 12 minutes to make up inclement weather days, causing some elementary students to go almost six hours from lunch to the end of the day, Executive Director of Education Rosie Coleman said.
Coleman and Parental Involvement Coordinator Julie Drake reached out to the First Assembly of God Church in North Little Rock for help feeding these elementary students snacks since they are in school longer.
"I don't know that we've ever asked [the church] for anything that they didn't meet that need," Coleman said. "They are quite a giving church and they do a lot for us."
The church had already been collecting food for the last nine weeks for its Share Your Lunch program, Pastor Patrick Lander said.
The program's goal was to collect 20,000 pounds of food to help children in need in the state, and Lander said they distributed 65,000 pounds of food to over 40 organizations Thursday.
The program donated 35,000 snacks to the district to help feed over 1,000 students, Lander said.
The North Little Rock Police Department also donated snacks to students who will be in school later in the day.
Officers donated $500 worth of snacks at Redwood Elementary School on Thursday for pre-school students, North Little Rock Police Department spokesman Sgt. Brian Dedrick said.
Coleman said the donation will allow pre-school students to have an additional snack since they have to stay for the extended time at the end of the school day.
Dedrick said this was part of the department's commitment to perform an act of kindness in the North Little Rock community each month.