Backpack program helping keep hunger at bay

SANDPOINT — Juice boxes, nutrition bars, soup, cereal and more fill the backpacks that make rows on the floor at the Bonner Community Food Center.

The packs look newly minted, with clean logos and fresh zippers. When they return to the food bank they will be empty.

That is a good thing, because the empty backpacks mean that the children who returned them had a few square meals over the weekend.

With more than 50 percent of students in the Lake Pend Oreille School District eligible for free or reduced lunches, a new food program that keeps students fed even when they are not in school seemed like a sensible endeavor to Suzanne Hayes.

Hayes, who moved to Bonner County last year, said she was taken by the poverty she found in the area.

When she enrolled her son at Northside Elementary and learned that 63 percent of the students were part of the free or reduced lunch program, she became involved.

“It wasn’t uncommon for kids to come in Monday morning saying there was no food in their house over the weekend,” she said.

She researched ways to help, and called relatives and friends for ideas.

“I made a few phone calls to different programs around the country,” she said.

She called the local food bank as well, and began gathering donations and volunteers at Northside and Washington elementaries.

“In six weeks we had it all organized,” she said.

Modeled after a national program, Hayes’ backpack program purchases food from the local food bank to fill packs on Thursday afternoon. The packs are turned over to schools the next day and Friday afternoon children pick up the food-laden packs for the weekend.

“It’s a great program for kids,” Rick Kline, the principal at Northside said. “Putting food in backpacks for the weekends is an opportunity for kids and families that may not have food to get them through the weekend.”

After being approached by backpack volunteers, Kline gave the program his blessing, and after a month of having students receive the packs, he gives it a thumbs up.

“Parents have been coming in saying thanks so much for this program,” he said.

Bobbie Hass, the district’s child nutrition director said the number of students receiving free and reduced meals began climbing four years ago before taking a five percent leap in the last two years.

“That’s a big increase,” Haas said. “There’s a great need.”

The need is evident throughout the district with 66 percent of students at Clark Fork eligible for free and reduced lunches, 63 percent at Farmin-Stidwell and Southside elementary schools, 88 percent at Hope and 65 percent at the Lake Pend Oreille High School, she said.

“For several of the children we know, eating at school is their main source of eating,” she said.

Hayes’ daughter Amanda is among National Honor Society students at Sandpoint High School who volunteer to fill backpacks Thursday after school.

“We were really looking for a project we can be involved in,” Amanda said.

Honor students plan to participate in an April food drive for the program that, so far, has sparked a healthy response.

“A lot of people have expressed interest,” Amanda said.

Volunteers have raised $15,000 for the program, and hope to expand to more district schools by fall. It costs approximately $4 to fill a backpack, Hayes said. The Gap promised to donate 350 backpacks this summer.

“When it comes to children and food, and them not having enough, Hayes said, “people are real willing to give.”