Keeping kids fed, program needs your help
A program designed to feed hungry students needs your help. School starts later this month in Lee County and the group in charge of filling backpacks full of food wants to add another school to its list. But without more money, some kids will be left out.
Thursday, August 6th 2009, 4:39 PM EDT
LEE COUNTY: A program designed to feed hungry students needs your help. School starts later this month in Lee County and the group in charge of filling backpacks with food wants to add another school to its list. But without more money, some kids will be left out.
In a few weeks, the classrooms at Heights Elementary will be full once again and officials say throughout the school year, hundreds of students will have to deal with empty stomachs over the weekend.
"When it comes to the weekend, many of the families are going without food which means our kids and our community are going hungry over the weekend," said Sarah Owen of Community Cooperative Ministries Incorporated, or CCMI.
That's one reason why starting this year, Heights Elementary will be the fourth school in Lee County to get some help from CCMI.
CCMI will be stuffing backpacks full of food and sending them home with kids over the weekend.
Owen said out of 900 students, more than 75 percent of them qualify for free or reduced lunch - a tell tale sign that the kids may need help.
"There are some students that will tell you they don't have food in their homes," said second grade teacher Monica Nelson.
"The first thing they do when they get off the bus is go right down to the cafeteria and eat breakfast," added fourth grade teacher David Nelson.
The problem is that it costs $80 to feed one child for a semester. And with nearly 600 students that may need this help, CCMI and its main sponsor, the Junior League, need some help.
"We have more and more families who had once been middle class, maybe even upper class, families that lost jobs or positions and that caused more students to be hungry," said Heights Elementary Principal Diane Salko.
If the program at Heights doesn't get a financial boost, Owen explained CCMI will feed as many kids as they can, then wait for more money.
"I want to make sure that first weekend when school starts that kids are not going home hungry," Owen said.
If you would like to help or to donate money to the backpack program for Heights Elementary, you can click here or call CCMI at (239) 332-SOUP.