The Backpack Buddies

You probably already know that there are children in our public school system who receive a free lunch.  There are even some who get breakfast too.  Did you ever stop to think what these kids are getting for dinner and over the weekend?

Many of these children are sent home at the end of each week to a house with little or no food until the following school day.  They are hungry little children who are too young to get an after-school job to fend for themselves.  These babies are hungry!

This is where Backpack Buddies steps in.  Each Friday these children, selected by their school counselors and with approval from their parents, are given a backpack filled with easy-to-open, no-preparation required food to nourish them until they return to school.

Backpack buddies is a nation-wide program that is managed locally.  It started in Texas by an elementary school teacher who noticed her children

There are a number of stores in the Wake Forest and Rolesville, NC areas who support Backpack Buddies.  When you see their box, fill it with food. These vendors will work with their local Backpack Buddies group to collect food, fill and deliver the backpacks to the local area schools.

Each Backpack buddies group is managed locally, staffed with volunteers, and funded through donations.

Below are some locations with drop boxes:

• Wake Forest Chamber of Commerce
• Dinners at Home, Heritage Wake Forest
• The Factory

You know that feeling you get after you've gone too long without eating? In our family, we call it having "blood sugar issues" - that cranky, sometimes hazy feeling where you just can't focus. When it happens, we run downstairs, open the pantry or fridge, and decide what to eat. My kids know that our house is filled with yummy and nutritious food they can eat anytime they want (unless they are overruled by me!).

In January as my daughter, Polly, turned 6 she was given a gift of $25.00 by her Grandma and Granddad. The gift came with the restriction that she could not spend it on herself - she had to use it to aid another person. After much discussion of how Polly could use her money, we kept coming back to food. How could we help someone who was hungry? Within a week, I found an article in The Wake Weekly about Backpack Buddies, and knew we'd found our project.

Kayla Brown, an educator in Bowe, Texas, noticed that many of her students were irritable and cranky on Monday morning. She soon discovered that they were hungry because they hadn't had enough food to eat through the weekend. With help from her local community, Brown started the first Backpack Buddies program. She noticed a positive difference in their demeanor and in their test scores.

"If a child is hungry, it's hard to focus on anything else," said Jeanette Shaw, a counselor at the Texas school where the Backpack Buddies program began. As students came to Shaw's office for behavior or discipline issues, she made it a point to ask them if they had eaten breakfast or needed a snack. She found that these children were just hungry!

Backpack Buddies are local volunteer-driven organizations that collect nonperishable food items such as juice boxes, fruit cups, soup, and snack bars, and more. Volunteers fill backpacks with enough food for the weekend and distribute them to the children each Friday. School counselors identify children needing this program, and the parents must authorize their child's involvement.

There are hungry children right here in North Raleigh, Wake Forest, and Rolesville. Our school districts provide children with free or reduced breakfasts and lunches to ensure that they can make it through the day. However, these kids have to make to through the weekend, too! Some go home on Friday and may not eat a regular meal again until Monday morning. Imagine being hungry for 3 days! Hunger affects the child and the family. Think about the parents who have to say, "I'm sorry, I don't have any food."

So together, Polly and I went to Super Target to see how far our $25 would go. That day she learned lessons on math, budgeting, cost-consciousness, and empathy. We talked about what the kids in the Backpack Buddies program would like. We purchased our groceries (ok we spent $30 - they needed juice), went to Dinners at Home, our collection box of choice, and placed our food into the box.

As recently as this spring, some schools in our area knew nothing of the Backpack Buddies program. Thanks to a little word-of-mouth and many groups of volunteers, our community is changing that. Most recently, the three Wakefield-area elementary schools have begun exploring Backpack Buddies. Led by Jim Crawford, their primary support is from Wake Forest Presbyterian Church. Rolesville Baptist Church, under the guidance of Jeff Pethel, Minister of Youth and Education, serves 106 children at Heritage, Jones Dairy, Sanford Creek, and Rolesville Elementary schools.

In the last few months, Wake Forest Elementary has begun a Backpack Buddies program with the support of the youth of Zack Moser Youth Minister Wake Forest United Methodist Church. There are now serving 13 children in the program, and that number will grow as the program develops further.

When I heard about the Backpack Buddies, I thought about how my family could help. So, 6-year-old Polly and I have organized a fun run to benefit Backpack Buddies. With Polly as my co-Race Director, we will hold The Buddy Run 5K and 1 mile Family Walk on September 19th in Heritage Wake Forest. We'll have a food drive on race day, and the food and all race proceeds will be distributed to the local Backpack Buddies programs.

Hunger is here, it is local, and we can help reduce its debilitating impact on September 19th. Our goal: no hungry children in North Raleigh!

If you would like to volunteer your time to support a local Backpack Buddy group, please contact Rolesville Baptist Church, Wake Forest United Methodist Church, or Wake Forest Presbyterian Church. Food donations should be taken to these churches as well as the Rolesville and Wake Forest Chambers of Commerce. Food must be non-perishable, require no cooking, and be appropriate for an elementary school-aged child to prepare independently.