According to the December 2011 federal census report, 1 in
every 6 people
in the U.S. is at or below the poverty level. That makes for a lot
of hungry people and a lot of hungry children. This spring Dr.
Mary Ahillen, superintendent of District 27, gave permission for
First Presbyterian Church to begin a small trial program providing
extra weekend food for 16 to 18 students at Jefferson School who
were eligible for the free and reduced-fee school lunch program.
The national Blessings in a Backpack program was the basis for
the spring food program, and their lists of foods were used, along
with their requirement at that time of placing the food in a
backpack, which the program provided for the child and which was in
addition to the backpack the child already carried.
The trial program was for 13 weeks. At the end of it, the mission
committee at First Presbyterian decided to end their association
with the Blessings in a Backpack program in order to have more
flexibility.
Committee members worked out details of their own program and
named it Food for Thought. It was decided to eliminate the extra
backpacks the children had to carry home by instead putting the food
in plastic grocery sacks that can be inserted into the child's own
backpack. The lists of food were expanded with additional nutritious
foods, including microwavable vegetables and more fresh fruit. In
addition, the mission committee slightly increased the amount of
money to be spent per child from the amount allowed by Blessings in
a Backpack.
The intent of the Food for Thought program is to fight hunger one
child at a time. It is expected that children who receive nutritious
food on the weekends will have better health, more energy and
consequently better attendance, which can lead to better learning
outcomes. The church's mission is not to feed the whole family, but
rather to supplement what the family can provide its children
through the family's own resources, Link cards and the food pantry.
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First Presbyterian Church is appreciative of the help it has
received for this program through the generosity of Wal-Mart, which
funded a $500 grant to help provide food for the children.
Another source of funding is the First Presbyterian barbecue
dinner fundraiser, which is earmarked for community mission work.
Food for Thought is one of the local missions funded through the
annual barbecue dinner as is Coats for Kids, a church program that
supplies winter coats and mittens each fall to schoolchildren in
need.
Food for Thought has been enthusiastically supported by the
congregation. More than 25 people have volunteered to order and pick
up the food, load it into plastic grocery sacks and deliver it to
the schools. Once the food reaches the schools, the staff there
places it in the children's backpacks for the weekend.
Tammy Martin, principal at Jefferson School last year, and the
school secretary, Deb Shaw, helped with the implementation of the
program at Jefferson in the spring. This school year, there is a new
principal, Sue Brummell, at both Jefferson School and Northwest
School. Ms. Brummell and the two secretaries of the schools, Shaw at
Jefferson and Tami Palmer at Northwest, have been very helpful with
the startup of the program at both schools this fall.
[Text from file received]
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