There are currently tens of thousands of children, both in Vermont and New Hampshire, who are dealing with food insecurity. Those numbers are even higher in other parts of the country. With the rising costs of groceries and cuts to funding organizations that address this issue, those numbers will only be increasing.
During the school week, many children rely on free and reduced meals. For many, those are the only meals they will receive all week. When school dismisses students at the end of the week, more than 15 million children in this country go home not knowing if they will have enough to eat over the weekend. Many of these children go home to empty cupboards and deal with hunger for more than two full days until they return to school on Monday.
All across the country, BackPack programs have been helping feed children and their families outside of school hours. Backpack Programs send food home discreetly to ensure students are well fed over the weekend or school break.
According to Food for Free, one program addressing the fight to end hunger in children, the first BackPack program was founded in 1995 by a school nurse who noticed that students often came to her office on Mondays complaining of stomach aches and headaches. She realized many of these students ate little to no food over the weekend. She partnered with her local food bank and started sending groceries home in their backpacks on Fridays to combat the issue. The school noticed an improvement in behavior right away.
Since then, Weekend Backpack Programs have proliferated nationally, and have been shown to decrease absenteeism, behavioral trips to the principal s office, and trips to
the school nurse for hunger related ailments. All of these factors lead to more instructional time in the classroom for students, which lead to better academic outcomes for children living in poverty.
The first step is looking at the need in your community and speaking with school leaders about the possibility of starting such a program, or if something is already in place. Perhaps they are addressing this already, or maybe their program could use some modification.
If it is determined that a BackPack Program would be beneficial to your school, there is still much planning to do. Funding and donations need to be obtained, volunteers to put bags together need to be found and coordinated, and more.
If you are interested in exploring the possibility of implementing such a program in your school, Food for Free and Blessings in a Back Pack both have excellent outlines that can guide you in how to begin researching and establishing this in your school. Those websites are www.foodforfree.org and www.blessingsinabackpack.org.
Sacred Spirit Wellness is located at The Healing Hive, 21 Barton Street in Bradford, VT. They can be reached via email at sacredspiritwellness1@gmail.com, on their Facebook page or at www.sacredspiritwellness.com

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