August UNDER THE CROSS PARTNER: The Sheridan Story

During the spring of 2010, the school administration at Sheridan Elementary in Northeast Minneapolis discovered students hoarding food from the cafeteria on Fridays. More than 90% of students at Sheridan receive free or reduced lunches, and many students were taking extra food home to eat during the weekend.

The Sheridan Story began by providing one bag of non-perishable food to 27 kindergarteners each weekend in 2010. Over the next two years, the program was gradually opened to to all students at Sheridan School, reaching more than 300 students in 2012. The spring of 2013 brought their first expansion into another school, Delano Elementary, increasing their impact to some 350 children.

“Hunger is a problem everywhere.”

In 2013 The Sheridan Story wondered how they could reach other children in the Twin Cities who live with food insecurity. They saw the need for developing a larger growth strategy and what emerged is their network model of weekend food programs.

In the fall of 2013, The Sheridan Story incorporated as a separate non-profit organization and launched pilot programs in three additional schools in Minneapolis reaching a total of 500 children in five schools. The pilot programs were successful and the team implemented a full launch. The Sheridan Story has grown from serving one school with a weekend food program to implementing multiple food gap programs serving over 10,000 children across 300 locations.