Samantha

Illinois

Some of the best places to visit are Kids Cafes. A recent trip to a location served by the Riverbend Food Bank is where we met eight year-old Samantha.

The aspiring police officer was busy playing a computer game when I ran into her during her after-school program, her eyebrows furrowed intensely as she stared at the screen. She was fixated on a science puzzle, and later told me that her interest in general science had intensified after she and her classmates had learned that, “We can melt ice with our hands and the sun!”

With her mother caring for seven children and her father in Mexico, Samantha relies on the services of her local Kids Cafe after-school program for a good meal and entertaining ways to study.

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