On March 25, 2022, the Merrill Noon Optimists donated $4,000 to Food For Kids. Food For Kids is a Merrill program that provides bags of food to children in food-insecure households, free of charge, and discreetly placed in student backpacks on Fridays so that students will have food to eat over the weekend when school is not in session and the free and reduced-cost meal programs, are not available to students.