Snack sacks

Each week at West Boulevard Elementary School, ordinary backpacks morph into miniature convenience stores. Courtesy of the Central Missouri Food Bank, the “Buddy Packs” are filled with enough nutritional and kid-friendly snacks to keep the children of 22 families fed from Friday night until Monday morning.

In August, the food bank piloted the Buddy Pack program at West Boulevard with the help of home school coordinator Lisa Turner, whose duties include keeping open communication between families and the school, and two volunteers: Heather Converse, a stay-at-home mom who does not have a student in the school, and Suzanne Henage, a retired physical education teacher and volunteer from Altrusa International Inc., a community service organization.

The idea for Buddy Packs was adopted from food banks across the U.S. that have started similar programs. The backpacks provide snacks for children who receive free or reduced-price lunches and do not have a reliable food source on weekends.

Bearfield School began organizing its own Buddy Pack program in late February, making it the second school in Boone County to do so. The food bank has launched the program in three Missouri communities and supplies 80 children with the bags.

“Our plans are to increase the number of schools significantly in the next school year depending upon the funding,” said Peggy Kirkpatrick, executive director of the food bank.

Kelli Garrett, agency relations coordinator for the food bank, gave three reasons that some children may not get reliable meals on the weekends: Their parents may be working two or three jobs and are not present to cook; parents may be drug or alcohol abusers and physically unable to cook; or children may live with an unstable relative.

“Kids are no different than adults,” said Turner, the home school coordinator. “If we don’t have a good breakfast or lunch, it makes it very hard to stay focused.”

The bags are marked with a number rather than a name to ensure anonymity. They are filled with crackers, granola bars, beef jerky, juice boxes, toaster pastries and cookies, among other snacks.

“I don’t know how they get them home because we really stuff them,” Converse said.

Children who participate in the program were chosen based on teacher observations of hunger and their status with the free or reduced-price lunch program.

Turner said 75 to 78 percent of West Boulevard’s children are from low-income or poor families and receive free or reduced-price lunches — the highest percentage in Boone County schools. The 22 families most in need of weekend snacks are participating in the pilot program.

Not all of West Boulevard’s low-income families need weekend aid, and Turner said some children were overlooked this school year. Turner wanted to determine how many families the program could handle before adding more to the list. She is pleased with the program’s success and plans to increase the number of participants to 35 families next year.

“I hate to think that a child would go hungry,” Turner said.