The Pleasant Valley School District has been providing free breakfasts and lunches for students in need on school days. But last year, Polk Elementary's principal, Erica Greer, and Polk's staff, began providing prepackaged breakfasts and lunches on a small scale for those students for when there is a holiday, like Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents Day and Memorial Day.

"They don't get enough to eat over the long holiday weekends," says Greer of the reason the program was started.Now principal of Pleasant Valley Elementary School, Greer is kicking the program up a notch. The school has partnered with Kinsley's ShopRite Market in Brodheadsville, and working with its nutritionist, Lindsay Vaughn, to give the students bagged nutritional breakfasts and lunches, at cost for those weekends.They're called "PVE Healthy Happy Meals."Kinsley's broke down the cost of each bag to $3. Every bag contains: one fruit snack; two oatmeal packs; one pack of crackers; one granola bar; one box of raisins; one individual apple sauce container; one can of tuna; one Juicy Juice; one bottle of water.Also in the bags are cards asking the parents what they like or not like about the bagged meals to help the program determine what is needed.Staff, parents, students and volunteers set up tables at Kinsley's to solicit the community to purchase a packaged bag or donate toward the program. Then volunteers packed the bags at the store.Lisa Kaminski, a Girl Scout leader of Troop 50473, and her children, Kara, a Pleasant Valley Intermediate fifth-grader and Girl Scout, and Evan, an elementary school third-grader, helped bag the meals at Kinsley's, along with some other Girl Scouts."I wanted the girls to be involved in helping kids in their community. Plus, they're having fun," says Kaminski.The elementary school sold and packaged 613 meals at Kinsley's in September. Its goal is to have 1,500 bags for the school year. They will hold another outreach to the community at Kinsley's in the spring.The grass roots pilot program started last year at Polk Elementary School with Laura Tomeo, PVE's guidance counselor, Louise Hayes, a PVE PTO parent volunteer, Lindsay Vaughn, Kinsley's nutritionist and Erica Greer, PVE principal. They sent home Healthy Happy Meals to 19 students.Now Valerie Rudawski, PVE's dean of students, is coordinating the program with the help of all of PVE's guidance counselors. At this time, she believes they'll have about 200 students who will receive the meals"ShopRite is being truly amazing with their generosity and support. We've had nothing but positive feedback from the parents," says Rudawski."We're passionate about knowing there is a need in our community and trying to meet that need," says Greer. "Our goal is to extend the program districtwide."