Healthy Happies giving back to local students

A local business is bringing holiday spirit to students in South Bend.

Healthy Happies partnered with Narvarre Intermediate and Warren Primary to make a difference this time of year.

"When we sat down and spoke to the principal there, she stated that unfortunately the hallways are not decorated and a lot of the children there don’t experience Christmas, let alone decorations," said Anjelica Pedraza of Healthy Happies.

Healthy Happies, a smoothie and tea shop, says decorations are only part of bringing joy.

Sometimes the joy is written between the lines - like on personalized candy canes.

"Saying 'You’re amazing,' 'Stay powerful,' something like that because they probably don’t even hear that. It's unfortunately one of the poorest middle school of South Bend schools district," Pedraza said.

A majority of students at the two schools come from low income households.

"We think about it like we have to get this present for this person or someone in our family. And yet we forget about our own community. We forget about our future, the children that will be our future," Pedraza said.

All month long, Healthy Happies will be sponsoring 55 families and over Christmas break, 800 students will get a special treat.

"We’re also trying to raise funds to give them a snack pack so that they can have something throughout their Christmas break," Pedraza said.

They’re hoping you can help, too, by covering a wall with big and little snowflakes.

"If you donate $1-$5 you get a small snowflake. $10 or more you get bigger snowflake," Pedraza said.

The personalized candy canes will be distributed the week of December 11th. Donations will wrap up on December 15.

If you would like to make a donation, Healthy Happies is located at 2043 E Ireland Road in South Bend.