Backpacks filled with food. Third graders from left to right, Leslie Langren, Naomi Battle and Rita Rodriguez, wear backpacks filled with food that are sent home with students at Lehigh Elementary School on Fridays for weekend meals. Photo by Mel Toadvine

On Friday, some 740 students at Lehigh Elementary School went home with backpacks with enough food to eat over the weekend. And when Friday comes this week, the children will again take home stuffed backpacks with food.

The program is underway at the school with a student body of 850 students to make sure there is food at home for around 86 percent of the students, said Donna McFee, a third grade teacher and coordinator of the program.

The school has provided weekend backpacks filled with food for Saturday and Sunday throughout the school year.

And to celebrate the program, adult volunteers who have come into the school to prepare the food for the backpacks will be honored with a barbecue on May 25.

“It’s going to be a very special barbecue at the school for all those who have helped,” said third grade teacher Grace L. Carver.

Donna McFee

The backpacks filled with food for the740 students are for children who are on free or reduced lunch programs at the school.

“It’s a massive undertaking and without the volunteers, we couldn’t do it,” added teacher Donna McFee as she shows the room in which the food is orderly placed so volunteers can fill the backpacks in time for students to take them home after the last class on Friday.

The food is provided by CCMI (Christian Community Ministries Inc.,) which purchases the food from the Harry Chapin Food Bank for discounted prices. CCMI is supported through contributions and also holds the program in a few other schools in the county.

McFee said CCMI came to the school and asked if officials would like to participate.

“They send us the food every other week and that is when our adult volunteers sort out the food in one of the rooms we have vacant while others come in at the end of the week to fill the backpacks. For children in Kindergarten and Pre-K, the food is given to them in plastic bags because the backpacks would be too heavy for them to lift.

Donna McFee’s Third grade class at Lehigh Elementary

The children who get the free food return the backpacks at the early part or the week and volunteers make sure they are clean and the ones hat are not are washed.

The food consists of several items from oatmeal to noodle to a cereal packet, dry mill and a cereal bar and often a fruit cup. Sometimes there is a box of macaroni and cheese or rice with beans.

“It’s all nutritious food,” McFee said. She noted that all children in the school are given a free breakfast every morning, no matter their parent’s financial status.

“It’s up to the parents whether they want to get their children here early enough for the free breakfasts. We believe children who have a good breakfast are better prepared to study their lessons and you know, we are an A school.“

With parents coming in on Wednesdays usually, they are able to sort the food so it doesn’t take away from our teaching time,” McFee said.

“The Good Neighbor Club, sponsored by Theresa Goodlad Insurance is composed of students who go to the 50 rooms in the school to retrieve the backpacks.

“We began as a pilot program for CCMI with about 150 kids,” McFee said.

The adult volunteers who come to help fill the backpacks learned of our program through word of mouth, McFee said. Included in that group are parents of many of the children who are getting the free food.

She laughed and said students that don’t get the extra backpack sometimes are envious of the children who go out of here on Fridays.

The two volunteers who head up the project are Maria Soltez and Jennefer Hall.

Our teachers all support the program because they see the need for food in their classrooms, McFee said.

Among those to be honored at the barbecue are: Brenda Rice, Sue Eby, Amy Zellman, Josanna Ward, Caren Taylor, Kari Lewter, Grace Carver, Marianna Hodges, Sharon Brooks, Cynthia King, Bernadette Hicks, Kimberly Davis, Renee Ceno, Patricia Slade, Sandra Gonzalez, Linda Estes, Cynthia King, Elizabeth Wilson, Amelia Duckelman, Cassandra Stanley, Mary Jean Cooper, and Christine Belisle.

McFee said the school is likely to be continue to be a place where students and their parents can come during the summer for groceries, too.

“It’s tentative right now, but I think it will take place,” McFee said.

“We all feel and we think it has been proven at the school that children who eat nutritious meals do well in school. It is a wonderful program,” McFee said.