Packed with care

The Beatrice High School kitchen was buzzing Thursday afternoon as 15 volunteers sorted and bagged food for the start of the Beatrice Public Schools Food Bank Backpack Program.

The BPS Food Bank Backpack Program is in its first year. Through it, 25 eligible students will leave school each Friday with a backpack filled with food for the weekend, said Kristy Thies, BPS Food Bank Backpack Program co-coordinator. The first backpack will go out Sept. 5.

The program was started by the Leadership Beatrice class as a community project, Thies said, but she and Patty Kaufman realized it was more than just a one-time event.

“There’s a lot of kids that the only nutritional meal they receive is at the school,” Thies said. “Someone needed to stay with the project and see it through.”

Thies and Kaufman worked with public school Nutrition Services Director Peggy Johnson and school officials to get the program going.

 The economy has made it hard for families, said Johnson.

“It really makes it a hard thing for family to get through,” she said. “(The program) is designed to extend their resources.”

Nutrition plays an important part in children’s education, Johnson said.

“We’re certainly finding more and more that nutrition affects the child’s ability to learn,” she said.

Eventually, Johnson said, she’d like to see a program that would help families during the two-week Christmas break by sending children home with grocery gift cards.

Enough money was raised through donations and fundraisers to pay for the program for two years, Thies said. The cost runs $150 per backpack for a school year.

“It’s been an easy job to collect the money to get this program up and running,” Thies said. “It’s been a team effort.”

Volunteers have come forward from organizations including the Rotary Club and St. John’s Lutheran Church to help sort and pack food every six weeks during the school year, Thies said.

Backpacks will contain an assortment of food purchased from the Lincoln Food Bank. Eligible students also will receive milk vouchers donated by The Kiwanis Club and Steve Hovendick and two pieces of fresh fruit donated by Southwick Chiropractic.

How much the program will grow, no one knows, Kaufman said. In Lincoln, the program started with about 50 backpacks about five years ago and has grown to about 1,500.

Whatever the number is, Beatrice needs the program, Kaufman said.

“I think it’s important to realize the need for something like this in our town,” she said. “Small town, we don’t think hunger can hit us, but it does.”