Packs fighting hunger

DUNKIRK — Westlawn Elementary School is battling hunger one backpack at a time.
With help from The Portland Foundation and Dunkirk area civic groups and businesses, school officials began sending nutritious food home with kids each weekend during the 2009-10 school year.
Westlawn principal Jeff Davis said he is preparing to launch the 2010-11 program later this month.
The first distribution date is set for Friday, Oct. 22, Davis said recently.
Davis plans to continue the program on a monthly distribution basis from October through May.
Davis sent home letters for parents and guardians last week explaining the program and encouraging participation.
The program supplements free breakfast and lunch programs, already provided to eligible students through the Jay School Corporation and the federal government.
“Westlawn Elementary will again this year be partnering with Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana to offer the Backpack for Kids Program. This program distributes six to eight healthy food items to students on a monthly basis. In each ‘Backpack’ the student will receive enough food for four nutritious meals and two snacks. The food will be placed in a grocery bag that students will transport home,” Davis said.
“The kid-friendly food will change monthly. Examples of the food items included in the ‘Backpack’ are macaroni and cheese, cereal, shelf-stable milk, soup, fruit, peanut butter, mixed fruit and snack items. Each elementary age child who participates is given one bag of food once a month,” Davis explained.
“This year we have 80 slots available for elementary age children to participate, with first priority being given to those students who are on the free/reduced lunch program,” Davis said.
The principal said that he would like parents and guardians to return their signed application forms by Oct. 15 so that preparations for the Oct. 22 distribution date can be finalized well in advance.
In its first year the Westlawn Backpack program had 73 elementary students participating.
“We had set aside monies for 180 student slots per month. The committee could only guess as to how many students would sign up for this program,” Davis said.
Due to the large number of open slots, the backpack program was able to supply students with food twice a month last year rather than the anticipated once a month this year.
The principal added that he has scheduled the backpack food distributions toward the end of each month because he realizes that’s when funds get tight for many family budgets.
He said the food is distributed on a per student basis, so if a family has more than one youngster attending Westlawn, each individual student would qualify to receive one of the packages.
“There’s a lot of need out there, and the more we can do, the better,” Davis said.[[In-content Ad]]