Frequently Asked Questions

FORK's mission is to provide nutritional support to children from food insecure homes across the Northland Pines, Three Lakes, and Phelps School Districts.

Feed Our Rural Kids Inc is a registered 501c3 nonprofit organization.

Donations to FORK are deductible under the guidelines of the IRS.

FORK Cares, FORK NOW, FORK Pantry, FORK Extra, and FORK’s Family Food Helpline.

The program provides an opportunity to enhance a child’s ‘at home” nutrition by upgrading their meals with fruit, vegetables, meat, and dairy items during their vacation periods from school. Learn more at www.FeedOurRuralKids.org/FORK-Cares

FORK provides families with a FORK Cares voucher to their local grocery store. The value of the voucher is equivalent to a meal a day for each of the school days within the vacation period

The program provides emergency nutritional support to school-aged children during instances in which they are experiencing fast-declining levels of food security within their household.  Circumstances of declining food security could be triggered by life events such as: death or illness within the family, divorce or separation, loss of a job or hours of work, loss of home or housing, etc.

Learn more at  www.FeedOurRuralKids.org/FORK-NOW

FORK NOW provides families with a $100.00 voucher, per child, to their local grocery store. That value is equivalent to a meal a day for the period of a month per Feeding America.

A FORK Pantry is a standalone nutritional resource designed to support two nutritional challenges The first is to provide local educators and educational staff with a ‘NOW” resource to aid hungry children during the school day. Secondly, each FORK Pantry location provides parents of guardians a year-round, 5-7 day a week, emergency access point for meal-time nutritional support.

Learn more at www.FeedOurRuralKids.org/FORK-Pantry

FORK Pantries are found in the Eagle River, Land ‘O Lakes, Phelps, and Sugar Camp Elementary School buildings, the St. Germain Community Building, the Conover Town Hall, the Plum Lake Public Library in Sayner, and at the Northland Pines Middle/High School as part of their ‘Locker’ program as well as SOAR High School as part of their 'Closet' program.

As a program, FORK Extra leverages our collaborative relationship with the Vilas Food Pantry in Eagle River, the Three Lakes Christian Food Pantry, and the Headwaters Food Pantry in Land o’ Lakes in order to increase the number of children served monthly at each pantry. Learn more at www.FeedOurRuralKids.org/FORK-Extra

Newly registered pantry families will receive two - $25.00 grocery vouchers per child. Vouchers are good at Charlie's NW Market in Land O’ Lakes, Three Lakes Town Market, Trig’s Food and Drug in Eagle River, and Camps Fresh Market in St. Germain. Vouchers are to be redeemed for fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy products. FORK Extra Vouchers are not good for the purchase of alcohol or tobacco products.

The family Food Helpline is a ‘go-to’ resource to support all food insecure households within Vilas and Oneida counties through times of their food insecurity. A call to the Helpline provides confidential counseling to Northwoods families through a partnership between FORK and the Vilas and Oneida County Departments of Health Services. County residents can expect to be directed, by trained nutritional support staff, to the support programs within their hometowns that best meet their economic challenges. Learn more at www.FeedOurRuralKids.org/Family-Food-Helpline

888-479-FORK (3675)

The FORK Endowment Fund is a financial planning tool created by FORK to accept and invest its donations for the purpose of nutritionally supporting children from food insecure homes, both today and tomorrow. Learn more at www.FeedOurRuralKids.org/FORK-Endowment

The Endowment spins off profits from its portfolio growth as a percentage of the fund balance on an annual basis. These funds are used to support and sustain FORK programming, as well as provide financial support to the efforts of other organizations, in FORK's jurisdiction, whose mission is to also feed children.

The fund will support FORK nutrition programs through an annualized cash distribution calculated as 4.25% of a 20-month rolling average of fund assets. This ensures the sustainability of those programs and their benefits for the future through asset growth of the endowment’s investment portfolio.

People can email Info@FeedOurRuralkids.org, or they can call Perry Pokrandt at 715-410-8167

Donations can be made online at FeedOurRuralKids.org/Donate. Then select the program donation button to which they chose to donate. Donations can be mailed to either Feed Our Rural Kids or the FORK Endowment Fund at 4887 Echo Ridge Drive, Eagle River WI 54521.

Team FORK is a group of volunteers whose job is to share FORK information with members of the community. Both those individuals who could benefit from our help as well as those whose resources could help FORK fulfil our mission.

CashFORKids is FORK’s largest annual fundraiser. It is held in the month of August as a collaborative effort of all the Eagle River financial institutions.

Perry Pokrandt – President

Scott Foster – Vice President / FORK Cares Chairperson

Catie Ford – Secretary

Dan Beihoff – Treasurer / FORK NOW Chairperson

Kathy Schmitz – Director / FORK Endowment Chairperson

Jean Arndt – Director / FORK Pantry Chairperson

Rick Miech – Director / FORK Education Chairperson

Kate Ferrel – Director / Family Food Helpline Chairperson

Teri Maney – Director

Ben Rabenn – Director 

Mindy Wessel – Advisor / Team FORK Chairperson

Lexi Scafaro – Advisor / CashFORKids Chariperson

May 19^th 2019

Go online to www.FeedOurRuralKids.org

Go online to www.FeedOurRuralKids.org/Get-Involved. When the page opens individuals can just click on the Volunteer link.