KENTON COUNTY, KY — Each year, tens of thousands of people suffer from food insecurity across Kenton County, according to data from Feeding America.
Now, Freestore Foodbank, Niagara Bottling's "Niagara Cares," and the Erlanger-Elsmere Independent School District are teaming up with Feed the Children to provide everyday essentials to families in need across the county.
The resource boxes will be handed out at Howell Elementary School on Tuesday, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
"We are giving out 400 boxes of food and hygiene supplies. So it's 25 pounds of food and 15 pounds of hygiene supplies, plus cases of water," Kerry McHugh said.
WATCH: How Erlanger-Elsmere officials are teaming up to address food insecurity
McHugh, the grants coordinator for Erlanger-Elsmere Schools, told WCPO Monday that food insecurity has long been a focus of district leaders.
"We do partner with the Free Store Food Bank to a twice a month, district-wide food pantry," McHugh explained. "Last year we had about 310, we served about 310 families with that food pantry."
The need is significant. According to data from district officials, for the 2025-2026 school year, they had 196 students identified as homeless — with 136 students identified as homeless so far this year. Meanwhile, around 75% of students across the district are on free or reduced-cost lunch.
District officials are looking to remove that major obstacle to learning while improving the lives of students and their families outside the classroom.
"It's really hard to concentrate and retain information if you're hungry, or if you had an emergency the night before, or you didn't have any clean clothes that morning and you're worried about you know how you smell or how you look and if you're you're not going to get made fun of," McHugh explained. "Being able to help families meet some of those basic needs just really sets students up to be their best at school so that they can learn."
Tuesday's event will be operated on a first-come, first-served basis.
