Students vie to fill weekend food backpacks for classmates

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) - In assembly-line fashion, the Franklin Elementary fifth-graders carried out their assignments Friday to prepare bags full of food so that hungry children would have something to eat over the weekend.

Once they entered the classroom, teacher Susan Mills gave them their duties for the 40 minutes she would have them. "We need about 70 bags today," Mills stated. They had already assembled about 120 on Thursday.

Three students were in charge of supplies and trash. "You know your job," she told them.

Cynthia's task was to make tags, while other children put food items in the bags.

"Our delivery men are Arin and Hayden today," Mills added.

Instructions delivered, the dozen or so students got down to business. Each bag was filled with two servings of macaroni and cheese; one applesauce; three small packages each of jelly, peanut butter and crackers; and bread or boxes of crackers.

The school has 370 students, and 96 percent of them are on free or reduced-price lunches. Each week, the "backpack council" prepares about 190 plastic bags of food that will go home with children who request them.

One of the fifth-graders, Jonathan Miller, put the macaroni and cheese in each bag before handing it off to another student. "It helps kids who don't have food for the weekend," he said. He likes to help assemble the food "because I'm helping people at my school."

Miller says, "It feels good to help. It's fun, too."

Hannah Bledsoe's task was to put applesauce and crackers in the bags. She knows that when children pick up their bags of food each Friday, they are "happy."

The children who participate in the "backpack council" are chosen by their teachers based on good behavior, work completion, work ethic and ability to lead and take direction, said Mills, who oversees the effort with Becky Taken, her education assistant.

"Everyone wants to work," she noted, and the children who participate each week may vary. "This is a huge deal that they get to do this," Mills added.

The students feel pride in themselves by being involved in a positive project that helps others, and they are developing leadership skills. "We want to involve as many (fifth-grade) students as possible," Mills said.

The program has been "very successful" in motivating some children to improve behavior, but it also might be a reward for a student who receives an "A'' on a test or deserved recognition for some other reason.

The students gather for 40 minutes each Thursday and Friday to prepare, and distribute, the bags full of food.

The students deliver the correct number to each classroom, but they don't know who receives them. "We're all about getting them put together and getting them delivered," Mills said.

The children are learning many skills beyond the classroom, including problem-solving and working as a team. They work with kids they would not normally work with, Mills said. In one case, one child had been mean to another, but after they assembled food bags together, the student who had been mean was later seen putting his arm around the other child.

Not getting along "doesn't fly in here. We all work together," Mills said.

Because of the relaxed atmosphere, teachers get to interact with students and develop a better insight into the lives of the students. "We get to know the students on a whole different level," Mills said. Those conversations "are valuable to all involved."

Some children who prepare the bags also receive them later, and one boy, who rarely speaks, described to Mills how much he enjoyed taking the food home and eating it over the weekend - he loved the bread with peanut butter and told her it was "so good."

School counselor Morgan Loudermilk does the behind-the-scenes work for Franklin's "backpack program," including ordering food through the VCSC food services office. (The backpack program has been districtwide since 2013).

The school, similar to others, has fundraisers to help support the program, she said. The students who make up the backpack council "are a huge help," Loudermilk said.

The program makes the fifth-graders feel good about themselves because it is an important task that they are doing to help others, she said. And she's seen how it's helped some children improve behavior.

One child who acted up could not participate as a result, and "he was distraught," Loudermilk said On his own, he apologized to his teacher, who told him he could return and help assemble the food items. "He was thankful," Loudermilk said.

Among the students participating Friday was Tamaj Martin, whose task was to put bread in the bags, tie them up and hand them off. "This is fun and inspiring," he said. Martin said it helps him behave because he wants to be part of it.

Those delivering on Friday were Hayden Tipton and Arin Sanchez. "It's a good time to be here and have fun and pack up bags," Sanchez said. Students need the food, he said.

Tipton says if students need food and don't have money to buy it, "they can just grab a bag." Being part of the backpack council "makes me feel good and it makes them (bag recipients) feel happy," he said.

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Source: (Terre Haute) Tribune-Star, http://bit.ly/1T4p1a6

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Information from: Tribune-Star, http://www.tribstar.com