Photo from Team 100, providing meals to Roosevelt Elementary. 

Team 100, a local volunteer organization providing weekend meals to children within the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) and their families living below the poverty level, will deliver its 1-millionth meal this week to students at Grant Elementary School, the organization announced.

Founded in 2010 by Jim Grubbs, John Shadden and Tim McBride, three Long Beach residents and businessmen, the organization partners with 15 LBUSD schools to serve some of the city’s most impoverished children outside of the breakfast and lunch provided by the schools on weekdays.

Food Finders and Team 100 Deliver Groceries to Families in Need at Roosevelt Elementary

Team 100 has partnered with other local organizations, including Food Finders, to deliver 375 food bags weekly (each feeds a family of four for a weekend), amounting to 9,000 weekly meals, according to the announcement. Non-perishable food items are provided, including oatmeal, pasta, rice, beans and canned foods.

“I had no idea that so many children in our own city were going hungry on weekends,” said co-founder Jim Grubbs in a statement. “We learned by speaking with the principals that some children were receiving school meals during the week, but come the weekends many were not being properly nourished. They’d return to school on Monday sluggish and hungry – that’s when Tim, John and I enlisted 17 friends to join the Board.”

Those 20 board members then recruited four new members each, with all donating $150 annually to the cause. Team 100 also organizes its Blue Martini Ball, an annual fundraiser held in June, which raises enough money to provide more than 300,000 meals every year, according to Grubbs. The act of providing these meals has helped to increase parental participation and grades, as well decrease school absences, he stated.

Learn more about Team 100 and its mission here.