A local gym in Woods Cross donated $10,000 to nonprofit charity For The Kids and spent a day preparing meal kits for the children.  

In 2012, For The Kids was founded by Minda Zoloth after she learned kids that are on the Federal Free Lunch program often go hungry throughout the weekend. What began as a goal to collect 50 bags of food for students expanded rapidly once Zoloft understood the extent of the need. She scaled the project for 250 children, many of them refugees or homeless, living with extended family with the help of local businesses. It has since grown into not only the weekly food bags but into thousands of Thanksgiving and holiday meal packages so kids are covered over school breaks.

Tanner Stahl, co-owner of Crossfit 801 in Woods Cross and his employees wanted to help the cause. 

“Our gym is dedicated to giving back to our community,” Stahl said. “We are always looking for opportunities to either raise money or donate our time to help organizations like For The Kids.”

Stahl and the employees of Crossfit 801 spent a Friday putting together meal kits for the children and volunteering at the For The Kids Salt Lake City location.

“We have been building a relationship with the company BlenderBottle and once we saw they were interested in fronting $10,000 to a charity of a local gym’s choosing, we knew we had to jump on it,” Stahl said. “We worked with BlenderBottle and For The Kids to facilitate the donation and volunteer work at the For The Kids downtown Salt Lake City location.”

They made 75 meal kits that day. For perspective, a single meal kit feeds one child for an entire weekend.

For The Kids believes in being an advocate for children, who are often the most vulnerable in our communities.

Any modest donation – a box of cereal, a box of mac and cheese, a granola bar – may be the key to making a huge difference in the life of any given child. For The Kids believes it truly takes a village to create lasting change. Companies, churches, neighborhoods and individuals have all rallied to support its mission, and the charity is always looking for more help. According to the For The Kids website, 5,000 food items leave the shelves each week, so donations of food, funds or time are critical. 

“They need volunteers to help fill and organize all of their bags of food,” Stahl said. “Even an hour of work goes a long way.”

If you want to help the organization, you can choose to donate at their website forthekids.org or volunteer with the group putting meal kits together. λ