2nd-grader raises money to donate food

Kaleb Kluge, who’s just in second grade, bought groceries to donate to the Jacksonville Food Bank this week with money he raised.
Kluge’s mom Amanda tell us he came home from Our Saviour School one day with the idea that he and a classmate hatched to make bracelets and sell them to family members. Kaleb wound up raising $32.
You’d think a seven-year-old would have no idea what to do in a grocery store with that kind of money- perhaps load up on candy- but Kaleb knew what he was doing, buying items like orange juice and cereal.
Kaleb was a little microphone-shy when asked questions like, did he buy all this food himself? “Yes.” Did you ever go grocery shopping before? “Yes.” Maybe this question deserves an answer other than yes: did he buy food that he thought he’d like, or maybe that the food bank would like? “Yes.”
Amanda Kluge says she and her husband Ben have tried to teach their son to be helpful to others.
“It all kinda started [with] trying to teach him that we are very fortunate and blessed,” she says. “Doing the Toys for Tots- we donated toys for that and had them take that, and the food drives at school. This kind of just [followed] off of that.”
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like Kaleb will get to personally deliver the groceries to the food bank himself. The center’s only open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., which is when he’s in school.



