District 15 heralds Blessings in a Backpack

Two years ago, a group of retired teachers from Glenview's Willowbrook School began meeting at Virginia Lake School Thursday afternoons to pack bags of groceries to be sent home each Friday with about 50 students in need.

In no time, this volunteer effort, known as the Blessings in a Backpack program, expanded to serve another 100 students in need at nearby Jane Addams School.

This year, the group of teachers who started this project because they were "looking for something to do in retirement other than meet for lunch" is serving a total of 167 students at the two schools.

And now another group of volunteers is stepping up to start the Blessings in a Backpack program at Kimball Hill School later this winter. Supported by the school's Kids Hope mentors and a number of volunteers from churches in the Rolling Meadows community, the Kimball Hill effort will also kick off by sending about 50 students in need home with enough groceries to feed them each weekend.

Unfortunately, far more than 200 District 15 students could probably benefit from these groceries each week. A decade ago, the percentage of District 15 students from low-income families stood at around 20 percent. By 2011, that figure had climbed to 32 percent, and now stands at 42 percent.

Blessings in a Backpack is a national, nonprofit organization that provides food for elementary schoolchildren across America who may otherwise have little or no food to eat on weekends during the school year.

There are more than 20 million children in America who are at risk of hunger, the consequences of which are much greater than just a growling stomach. Poor nutrition can result in a weaker immune system, increased hospitalization, lower IQ, shorter attention spans, and lower academic achievement.

While the federal free and reduced-price meal program provides low-income students with breakfast and lunch during the school week, Blessings in a Backpack aims to make sure they're getting nutritious meals over the weekend, too. Students who participate in the Blessings in a Backpack program show marked improvement in school attendance, test scores, behavior and health.

There are, however, hurdles to establishing a Blessings in a Backpack program in a school. Volunteers in the program must commit to providing food for at least 50 students in a school for no less than three years before they can begin their efforts. That's about a $12,000 commitment, and that's where support from the community comes into play.

The Blessings in a Backpack efforts in District 15 have been financially backed by a variety of donors. Food 4 Thought, a local fundraising branch of Blessings in a Backpack comprised of students from three different area high schools, helped launch the program.

Since then, the Olive Garden in Arlington Heights and Seasons 52 in Schaumburg have provided the Blessings in a Backpack effort several thousand dollars in Restaurant Community Grants through the Darden Foundation.

Several families who asked to remain anonymous also stepped up to fund the program's expansion, saying they wanted to share their good fortune and - by occasionally chipping in to actually pack groceries, themselves - show their own young children how important it is to help others.

District 15's role in the volunteer program has even grown since Blessings in a Backpack began. From the start, the schools' staffs have determined which students could most use the help and assisted the volunteers in discreetly sending those students home with the bags, each of which contains roughly $2 of groceries.

For the past year, District 15's School Nutrition Services, which literally buys tons of food in bulk, has used its purchasing power to improve the selection of food the program provides while stretching its limited budget as far as possible.

By teaming up with School Nutrition Services, Blessings in a Backpack now sends students home with a rotating menu of healthier groceries that include whole grains, juices, fresh fruits, and some of their favorite nutritious snacks that are offered at school.

"We're truly grateful for our Blessings in a Backpack volunteers' hard work and for the incredibly generous support of all the different donors who fund the program," said Susan Gehring, District 15's assistant superintendent for Student Services.

"Each bag of groceries may only amount to about $2, but to the students who take them home each Friday, their value is much, much greater."

Generous donations and committed volunteers now allow the Blessings in a Backpack program to provide more than 200 D15 students in need with enough groceries to feed themselves each weekend.

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