Weekend meal program needs financial help
The Montana Food Bank network is looking for a new sponsor to help provide weekend meals to students at Lakeside Elementary through the Backpack Program.
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 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 Fridays. If the student has younger siblings who are not yet of school age, food is sent home for them also.
Lakeside Elementary started using the program last year, but have recently lost their fiscal sponsor.
The Montana Food Bank is currently footing the bill until a new sponsor can be found.
Montana Food Bank network schools program coordinator Stephanie Stratton said they like to have local non-profits fund the programs, since those are the people who are truly invested in the well-being of the communities kids.
Most schools have sponsors; the Rotary Club of Bigfork provides funding for the program in Bigfork schools. It costs $15 a month or $168 a year to sponsor a child in the program.
Schools have to qualify for the backpack program by proving a need — having 40 percent or more students utilizing the free or reduced lunch program.
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 20-25 students, three or four of them are not going to know where their next meal is coming from, and that’s really scary,” 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.
Stratton said usually a third of students who qualify for those lunches are chronically hungry.
Once a need is identified at a school and a funding source is secured, faculty go about recommending 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 Fridays 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.
Currently 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, Stratton said. At schools that have implemented the program Stratton said there is typically reduced tardiness and absences and fewer behavioral problems.
The sponsoring organization needs to be a certified non-profit. Interested parties should contact Stephanie Stratton at the Montana Food Bank Network at 406-721-3825.