Rotary Club of Bigfork works to end childhood hunger in Bigfork

This Friday a few Bigfork students will leave campus with something new in their backpacks — food.

The Rotary Club of Bigfork is funding the backpack program, through the Montana Food Bank Network, to help provide weekend meals to hungry Bigfork youth.

The backpack program is part of a national hunger-fighting organization, Feeding America. Its aim is to help improve students’ school performance by providing them with the necessary food they need to focus on their school work.

The Montana Food Bank network estimates that one in five children in Montana are at risk of “food insecurity” — not knowing when they will receive their next meal.

“If you think about a classroom of 20 to 25 students, three or four of them are not going to know where their next meal is coming from, and that’s really scary,” Montana Food Bank network school program coordinator Stephanie Stratton said.

Strides have been made in combating childhood hunger with the federally mandated breakfast program and free and reduced lunches for low-income families, but those don’t account for the time when kids aren’t at school.

The backpack program provides qualified students with two breakfasts, two lunches and two snacks to take home for the weekend. The items are pre-packaged and ready to eat. Teachers put the food into students’ backpacks on Friday. If the student has younger siblings who are not yet of school age, food is sent home for them, too.

Heather Howlett, president-elect of Rotary Club of Bigfork, helped bring the program to Bigfork.

Last spring, she began researching community needs, trying to learn what the Rotary Club could do to help. “I was shocked to learn that over 40 percent of our students in Bigfork qualify for free or reduced lunches,” Howlett wrote in an e-mail. She learned that more than 30 elementary students are considered chronically hungry, surviving on very little outside of school. “I knew I wanted to do something to help those numbers decline,” she wrote.

Schools must qualify for the backpack program by proving a need — having 40 percent or more students utilizing the free or reduced lunch program. Stratton said usually a third of students who qualify for those lunches are chronically hungry.

Once a need is identified and a funding source is secured, faculty recommend students who they’ve noticed symptoms of hunger in.

Behavioral signs can be asking for seconds in the cafeteria or cutting in the lunch line. They might have excessive absences, tardiness and difficulty in social relationships. Sometimes they’re extremely thin, or extremely overweight because of their nutritional intake. Teachers are also often aware of home circumstances, like a recently lost job or medical issue that is affecting families.

When students go home on Friday with the meals in their backpacks there will be an opt-out letter for parents, letting them know about the program. If the letters don’t come back to the school, the student will continue to receive food.

The Montana Food Bank Network is servicing 64 sites in 33 communities with the backpack program. They started using the program in 2008 and it has grown rapidly, coordinator Stratton said. At schools that have implemented the program, Stratton said there are typically reduced tardiness and absences and less behavioral problems.

Shipments of food will arrive in Bigfork every six weeks, and be managed by Bigfork food service director Ginny Kirby, who hadn’t heard of the program until Rotary mentioned it. She’s eager to get started.

“I can’t wait to get things going so I can see exactly what it’s going to do,” she said. “I think it’s going to be great.”

Most schools have sponsors, like the Rotary Club, that help fund the program. It costs $15 a month, or $168 a year, to sponsor a child in the program. The Bigfork program will start serving about 30 children.

Anyone wishing to contribute can contact Howlett through Rotary Club of Bigfork, P.O. Box 224, Bigfork MT 59911, 406-260-1901, heather@tjwendt.com.