VIDEO: Filling Backpacks and Stomachs

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Students have been out of school since last Friday.

Monday was a holiday and following two were snow days.

Aside from the instructional time, some students missed the nutritious meals their school provides.

For the last six years, Starkville First United Methodist Church in Starkville has been working to make sure children have food, even when they’re away from school.

With a growing amount of support from the community, they look to help rid the area of child hunger.

“There was a student at the high school who was going to after school tutoring that didn’t need to be going, and then when the teacher asked why he said he was coming for the snack to have his supper that night,” said Blessings in a Backpack Coordinator, Susan Tomlinson.

That moment sparked a movement in Starkville six years ago.

First United Methodist launched the Blessings in a Backpack project to help students who were going through the weekend without anything to eat.

“We ran across the Feed America backpack meals program,” explained Tomlinson. “And so for six years we have been sending meals home in backpacks on Friday.”

Project coordinators let the schools select which students get the food every week.

“It is very discreet, and the counselors and the teachers at the school refer students,” said Tomlinson. “Then, a sheet is sent home so their parents have to sign that they want to receive the meals. Then the meals are put in their backpack either by volunteers or a counselor on Friday.”

The cost to support the two-hundred students already in the program costs very little.

“It takes about somewhere between 26,000 and 30,000 a year.”

That’s dollars. $26,000 to $30,000 to send 200 kids home with meals for the weekend.

The growing amount of support in the community can not only feed these students but also help Blessings in a Backpack accomplish what everyone should want.

“…To pull our community together so that we can stop hunger in Starkville.”

If your community is interested in starting something like Blessings in a Backpack, Starkville FUMC asks you give them a call and they’ll help you make your start.