Last spring, the Family Connection Collaborative Hunger Prevention Coalition was made aware of students in our county schools that needed food on the weekend and holidays, 3,900 Decatur County students (68% of our enrollment) are on a reduced or free lunch program.  Our school system provides breakfast and lunch for students but for a variety of reasons, some students don't get enough to eat when school is not in session.
 
Allison Harrell helps unload the food delivered for the backpack program by the Food Bank of Southwest Georgia. These deliveries will be made monthly.

Family Connection was in contact with the Food Bank of Southwest Georgia who had received an American Idol grant to fund the BackPack™ Program . The BackPack™ Program is designed to meet the needs of hungry children at times when other resources are not available, such as weekends and school vacations. Backpacks are filled with nutritious, child friendly foods and given to children that are identified as ‘at risk’ of going hungry over the weekend by their elementary school counselor.

Initially the plan was to provide 50 elementary students with food each weekend. The cost per student is approximately $125 for a school year. The Hunger Prevention Coalition would be able to receive food from the food bank through the grant and also be able to purchase more food through them. Our responsibility would be to match approximately 25% of the grant throughout the year.

The community has been very supportive of the efforts, the Rotary Club made donations that provided the backpacks as well as additional money, churches, individuals have also helped. What wasn't anticipated was the number of students that would be referred by their teachers.
 
Each child that was referred took permission slips home for parents and/or guardians to sign. The number of returned permissions slips has been overwhelming, schools have had to stop taking them. of the 223 that have been referred and accepted, 118 students will be participating in the backpack program. The remaining 105 will receive food out of the Hunger Prevention Food Bank each week. The reason for this is that some families are so large that the children can't carry the food home.
 
The first backpacks will go home with the children this Friday. Tuesday afternoon volunteers packed the 118 backpacks with items such as peanut butter, soup, fruit, tuna and other items. Some of the backpacks were packed for 2 children. On Friday, each elementary school will receive the backpacks for their students and the students will pick them up at the end of the day. On Monday the students will return the empty backpacks and then the processed begins again.

With such an overwhelming number of students in need of food for the weekends, this food came from the Hunger Prevention Food Bank.

The food from the Food Bank of Southwest Georgia is supplemented by the Hunger Prevention's Food Bank and right now there is more going out then coming in. Two food drives have been held recently, one in the spring and one in August. The food bank also has been helping families in emergency situations.

If you, your business, organization or church would be interested in helping by making a donation, having a food drive, packing backpacks or delivering them to the schools, please contact Ami Mejia at amejia@bainbridge.edu Allison Harrell at arharrell@dcboe.com  or Dana Bryant dbryant@dcboe.com