The Backpack Program at Brookfield Elementary School resumed at the beginning of school. While students who receive the food stuffed into their backpacks to help them get through the weekend will not have seen any difference, much about how the Brookfield Backpack Charitable Fund operates the program has changed.
The program, in its sixth year, no longer falls under the guidelines of Feeding America. Locals could only pack what Feeding America said to pack, and had only one source from which to buy food, Second Harvest Food Bank, said Brookfield Backpack Charitable Fund President Tracy Plyler. Plus, they had to purchase for the entire year in June, making storage space an issue.
Although the program serves elementary students, it now is run as an extension of the Brookfield Middle School food pantry, and the two organizations help each other out, Plyler said.
The program provides two entrees, milk, cereal, fruit and snacks to 40 to 50 kids a week.
A majority of the food still comes from Second Harvest, but Plyler can go to other sources when Second Harvest doesn’t have, say, snacks, and can take advantage of bargains, when she finds them.
“We’re hoping, in the long run, that we will save money on a per-child basis,” she said.
The program also moved its operations from Brookfield United Methodist Church to the middle school, cutting down the shuttling of bags and bins between the church and the school, and making it easier for student volunteers to participate.
Once a month, a student group or service club packs plastic bags – provided by Mr. D’s Food Fair – that school employees then pick up and place into backpacks.
The church, which has its own food pantry and supplies personal care products to Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church in Masury, remains a supporter of the Backpack Program.
“They still keep a little space for us,” Plyler said. “We have limited space so, if I see a bargain, I have a place to put it.”
The Backpack Program’s fundraiser, Hungry For the Arts, will return after a one-year hiatus: on March 7 at Tiffany’s Event Center, Brookfield. Many details are still to be worked out, but Plyler said it will be similar to past events and include a spaghetti dinner, art contest, photo booth, craft station, games, a basket auction and, hopefully, music from a high school musical ensemble.
Plyler said she will be sending out letters to businesses that have sponsored Hungry for the Arts in the past in the coming months.
“It’s our only fundraiser,” she said. “It’s pretty important to us.”
The fund also accepts donations. Make out checks to the Community Foundation of Western PA and Eastern OH; write Brookfield Backpack Charitable Fund in the memo line; and send them to the foundation at 7 W. State St., Sharon PA 16146.
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