ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Higher food and gas prices are impacting Feeding the Fosters Inc., a local non-profit started by a Pinellas County Schools student that provides hot meals to foster families.
Co-founder Laura Kopec, 16, a 12th grader at Palm Harbor University High School, says she’s seen about a 30 to 50% drop in meal deliveries to foster families, depending on the week.
According to Kopec, families who receive two or more meals a week now receive one.
Three years ago, Kopec and her older sister started Feeding the Fosters with the goal to teach the local community about how foster families can often struggle to have enough food. The project also helped her get the volunteer hours she needed for a Bright Futures Scholarship.
“We (my sister and I) recognized food insecurity in a group home in our neighborhood when we were younger and decided to start cooking for the family weekly,” Kopic said. “Now, we’ve extended it to include other private foster families.”
Feeding the Fosters has become a true labor of love.
“It really makes us happy seeing the other kids happy and being able to help out the foster parents,” Kopic said.
It’s grown tremendously— feeding 65 foster families total and 30 currently. The organization has provided more than 40,000 meals since 2019.
Feeding the Fosters relies on its volunteers to cook and deliver meals for families.
“We do cook about one to two times a week personally,” Kopic said. “Other people can sign up to cook, as well.”
The food used is either bought by the volunteers themselves or donated by local restaurants.
Feeding the Fosters hopes to raise funds for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals for 35 local foster families. To achieve this goal, Kopec has organized a virtual auction through Bidding Owl. The auction will run from July 14-28. A total of $10,000 in donated items—ranging from TVs to hotel stays—have been collected to auction off.
If you'd like to participate in this auction or serve as a volunteer, you can visit the Feeding the Fosters website for more information.