The Tillie Project, a part of Snack Pak 4 Kids, is helping a growing number of grandparents who raising their grandchildren. Grandparents must fall under guidelines set by the project and apply through their grandchild’s AISD school counselor, according to the program director.
“Food insecurity is a growing issue. It’s not necessarily an empty pantry. Oftentimes, it’s the addition of people in a family that can create a food insecure situation, either temporarily or permanently. We found that to be true with Grandfamilies — homes where grandparents are raising their grandchildren,“ said Becky Stogner, who is in charge of the program. “Grandparents do not have to have legal custody of their grandchildren to get help from this program, but they must be the primary caregiver.”
“A lot of times they (grandparents) will take in their grandchild to keep them out of the system or simply because it’s the right thing to do at the time. This may mean they don’t qualify for a lot of government or other community resources. They may make too much money to qualify, but with extra people, food insecurity can become real and now they now have extra needs,” she said…