The Robert Fankhauser Memorial Fund recently donated $2,500 to Raven Packs, a nonprofit that distributes food to Ravenna students.
Donations like this are essential to the organization’s operation, since it runs almost entirely on community support, said its treasurer and operations manager Laura Wunderle. It costs Raven Packs about $50 to serve one student for a year. The organization currently serves 481 students.
The packs include entree items, breakfast foods and snacks and are scheduled to go home with kids on long weekends and breaks throughout the year.
So far, the organizers haven’t had to look for funding beyond community support, mostly thanks to fundraising initiatives put on by others to support the organization.
“It seems like it’s a cause that’s really close to a lot of people’s hearts,” Wunderle said. “And that’s exciting because it seems like they’re just taking that motivation and just doing [fundraising] on behalf of Raven Packs”
Linda Fankhauser started the memorial fund for scholarships after her husband, Robert Fankhauser, passed away and shifted to supporting various organizations in recent years. She and her son Mark, a Portage County Municipal Court judge, considered donating to a toy drive, but “we just thought that it was more important to feed people.”
“We’re happy to do what we can do, when we can do it,” Fankhauser said.
Cash donations can be sent to Raven Packs at P.O. Box 728 Ravenna, OH 44266. To donate to the Robert Fankhauser Memorial Fund, contact Family and Community Services at [email protected] for more information.
Natalie Wolford is managing editor at The Portager. A native of Randolph, she studied film in New York City and is producing a feature-length documentary about her aunt, a small-town journalist.