A cereal drive will provide thousands of meals for local children who may have gone without this summer.

The Lake Trust Foundation’s inaugural Summer Cereal Drive has been deemed a success. The drive was held in early June to help provide meals for children through community food banks across the state. Through conversations with local food banks, officials said they learned that summer is a particularly important time to donate, as kids are out of school and don’t have access to free or reduced price lunch programs.

Employees from around the state pulled together to donate a total of 21,492 servings of food, which was matched by the foundation. Thus, the effort will provide 42,984 servings of cereal, or meals, for 500 Michigan children for the duration of the summer. An additional challenge was held for employees and the winning team was a collaboration of Brighton headquarters Support Department and the Credit Union’s Chelsea and Ann Arbor, Stadium branches. The team added the foundation’s match to the donation they made to their local food banks.

Gleaners Community Food Bank of Livingston County is receiving 16,700 servings plus an additional $1,800 foundation donation or a total of 27,446 servings. Director of Gleaners’ Livingston County Operations Bridget Brown says they’re proud to have local long-time supporters like Lake Trust recognize the need for feeding kids during this time of year and join them in their annual cereal drive. Facebook photo.(JM)