May 22, 2013 4 min read

WAYNESBURG – When school lets out for the summer, families receiving free or reduced school lunch prices face a dilemma. Their monthly food budget has to be stretched to replace the breakfasts and lunches their children receive during the school week. For those who receive the benefit of the weekend backpack program for their kids, it is even more difficult.

The outreach from local agencies to provide a stopgap for these kids continues to grow, year after year in Greene County. The USDA Summer Food Program for Kids has been providing free lunch in the summer for several years.

Locations where children may receive the lunches are scattered throughout the county to afford better availability. From the Nemacolin Volunteer Fire Department social hall to the Ryerson Station State Park, healthy meals are at the ready.

Jan Caldwell, director of the Corner Cupboard Food Bank Inc., said she began to look at what more could be done to help feed Greene County’s children in the summer.

“By July, when the kids are out of school for a month and eating parents out of house and home, there had to be a way to help,” Caldwell said. “That is when we usually have people who don’t normally get our help coming in to us. I took a look at the weekend backpack program and came up with an idea based on that.” Caldwell is calling this initiative, “We grow healthy kids in Greene County.”

The weekend backpack program was started by the food service directors in the West Greene and Carmichaels Area school districts two years ago. The goal of the program was to bridge the time over weekends and holidays when needy students were not there to receive cafeteria food. These students are identified and nutritious food issent home with them on Fridays that can be prepared by the kids themselves. Due to the success of the program, the Central Greene school board approved the districts participation at its February board meeting.

Caldwell’s off-shoot of the weekend backpack program is incorporated into the monthly food distribution at the food bank. Starting with the June distribution, families with children who are 3 years old and over will receive one bag per child with 10 shelf-stable, nutritious, kid-friendly foods.

“We plan to put 10 items per bag. If you have three kids that is a decent amount of food to at least help out,” Caldwell said. “I started to apply for grants to cover the cost of the program and so far have received $2,000 from Greene County United Way.”

United Way also anticipates a contribution of $1,982 through its donor program where the food bank was chosen as the recipient.

“I have also put in a request for the annual $10,000, designated line-item in the Greene County budget for the food bank, and intend to use it for this. I felt that was a very fitting and appropriate way to use these funds, to feed the children of Greene County,” Caldwell said.

Among the items to be included in the bags will be fresh apples, protein bars, canned spaghetti with meat sauce, mandarin oranges, soup, and a quart of shelf-stable chocolate milk. This type of milk does not require refrigeration until it has been opened. Caldwell said that will help to preserve it when a family receives more than one quart for multiple children.

The cost to provide 1,500 of the bags over the summer will come in around $4,530, according to Caldwell. However, any additional monies received above that amount will be used to continue the program into the school year and beyond, she said.

“We will do this for as long as we are able to continue funding it because it benefits the kids,” Caldwell said.