Published: November 08, 2008 12:09 am      

New initiative feeding needy children

Volunteer efforts help launch Backpack Program into two Logansport schools.

When elementary school principals Elizabeth Loposser and Chris Hess first suggested their schools should provide low-income families with additional food, they had no idea it would take off like it has.

“It’s taken lots of coordination to get here, but the amazing thing to me is that we sat down in June ... and this thing just took off,” said Hess, the principal at Fairview Elementary School. “You plant a seed with one or two people, and if it’s a worthy cause and something that people can get passionate about, it really takes on a life of its own.”

With the help of donations and volunteer efforts from around the county, Columbia and Fairview elementary schools in Logansport held the first distribution day for the Backpack Program on Friday. Children from low-income families in kindergarten through second grades, who were identified through the schools’ free and reduced lunch programs, took home a backpack filled with nonperishable food items to provide their families with something more to eat over the weekend.

The students will bring the bags back on Monday, and volunteers will refill the bags to be taken home again.

“The program and the meaning of all it can do for the children is the important part,” said Joyce Gebhardt, executive director of the United Way of Cass County, which helped launch the program by providing a one-time $25,000 grant through the end of the school year. Donations from area businesses, including The Andersons, also helped to get the program off the ground.

The suggestion to bring the Backpack Program to Logansport came out of a meeting between Hess, Loposser, who is the principal at Columbia, United Way leaders and members of Food Finders Food Bank in Lafayette. The program had been successfully implemented in other cities and those involved felt it could also benefit families in this area.

Fairview and Columbia were chosen for the initial launch because of the large percentage of “impoverished children,” according to a news release from the United Way, which estimated that population could be as high as 72 percent.

Hess said she is pleased that the schools can offer the program to help these families.

“The economy is horrible right now and a lot of people are struggling,” she said. “We get that, and whatever we can do to help, we want to do. I know this will help a lot of kids and a lot of families.”

Food Finders provides the food items for the 225 backpacks, and the United Way developed the menus, said Gebhardt. Volunteers began organizing food items on Live United Day on Sept. 12, and since then, volunteers from CrossWind United Methodist Church and First Assembly of God have been preparing for the first distribution.

Missy Iles, the volunteer coordinator for the project, said she needs between 25 and 30 volunteers each week to help pack food. She said she has contacted different clubs, church groups and youth organizations throughout the area trying to recruit help to make the project a success.

“It’s the kids we’re helping,” she said. “If it becomes a community project, the more people who know about it, the more kids will get the service.”

Because neither school has enough space to store the food and offer a staging area for volunteers, First Assembly of God will serve as the packing center for future distributions, meaning volunteers will receive the food items at the church, inventory and pack the bags, then deliver them to the schools for the Friday distributions.

With the first distribution, children also received a free kid-friendly book about nutrition, and future bags will periodically contain other educational items.

“It was really important to the United Way board that this be a hand up,” said Gebhardt. “Along with providing the food for them to go home for the weekend, we help to teach the kids responsibility by taking home the bag and remembering to bring it back on Monday. It also had an educational component with the books.”

Organizers are considering different ideas like books on hygiene and resource pamphlets for future educational handouts, said Hess. She said they also hope to include vouchers for perishable foods.

Hess said that organizers are still working out some bugs with the program, and are expecting more to arise in the coming days. Eventually, she said organizers hope to expand the program to other grades to reach as many people as possible.

Although the program is limited for now to three grades at two schools, Hess said she is excited about the number of people the program can help.

“It’s incredible how this thing is blossomed, and I feel that is what our kids are going to do with this boost,” she said. “... The sky is the limit, and with giving hearts, I know we can just do so much.”

Carla Knapp can be contacted at (574) 732-5150 or via e-mail at carla.knapp@pharostribune.com



Want to help?

The Backpack Program needs volunteers who are willing to sack food. Volunteers will meet at 9:30 a.m. on Thursdays through the end of the school year at First Assembly of God, 831 Burlington Ave. No heavy lifting will be required, but for those who are able, volunteers are also needed once a month to unload skids of food at the church. High school students are also invited to help with the project at 3:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of the month at the church.