Meet Our Members - ForKids program at Thurston County Food Bank

Want to learn more about what it takes to start and run a school backpack program? Cheryl Falkenburg, of the ForKids program at Thurston County Food Bank, shares what it took for them to make this best practice happen:

I was hired by the Food Bank to manage this project in 2007. This was a pilot program and we focused on homeless children in the elementary schools, Preschool - 6th grade plus siblings. We assembled bags at the food bank with a weekend worth of meals (1 hot cereal packet, one cold cereal, one shelf stable milk, one real fruit juice, two fruit cups, cup of soup, easy mac, granola bar, snack cracker with cheese or peanut butter and two protein items). We created an assembly line and used plastic grocery bags (used for the most part and picked up from the recycle at grocery stores), passed the bag down the tables where the food items were sitting in banana boxes (the packaging tool the Food Bank uses for everything) and when the bag got to the end of the table (past all of the items), it was double knotted and placed in a banana box (six bags/banana box), six banana boxes per level, on a pallet.

I have a crew come in weekly and build my bags for the next week. (if the numbers were smaller, I could build for two weeks, but we served 1106 children last week and this number keeps growing)

I contacted all of the schools in our area (we have four school districts we work with). It is helpful if the school district has a homeless liaison, or home visitor specialist. Our first point of contact with the school district was the Public Information Officer and/Homeless Liaison. We shared our idea of identifying the homeless children in their school (the counselors generally know who they are) and having bags delivered to the schools where the counselors would discreetly distribute the bags (place them in the child's backpack) from their office or somewhere else private. Once we had all of the homeless children identified, counselors started telling us of other children who were always hungry and asking for food. These children are usually the ones on the Free and Reduced Lunch Program. So, now the counselors send home a letter to the children on that list and ask the family if their child(ren ) could benefit from this service. Weekly, the counselors fill out a form we created that shows grade level, gender and new/returning students (Our executive director uses this information to write grants).

This program is an expensive program, but we have a board and staff who are extremely committed to ending hunger in our neighborhood and have supported the growth. This program is also one that garners support and donations because hungry children tug at our heart strings. Since the children are often alone at home, of varying age and ability, the food needs to be serving size and easy for them to fix on their own. This necessitates a more expensive type of product. We don't get enough food through donations, so I have to purchase pallets of food from wholesale stores. I purchase shelf stable milk - two pallets at a time...

Naturally, we didn't start that first year off serving 1100 children a week, we started off small - limiting the school district to a finite number we could afford and defining the recipient as "homeless". I have over 150 volunteers who come in monthly to package, sort food, assemble the school's orders and drive the food to the schools. In the beginning, I didn't need that many, but that need has grown as well, plus I never have a problem finding people to help the children.

We started out serving only elementary schools, but have created a pantry model for middle schools. Another organization serves the High Schools, but a pantry model would work great there as well. For older children, it is nice to be able to make choices, and also I have larger containers - like a soup size Ravioli instead of microwavable size Ravioli cup.

I guess the best place to start would be to find out the need, then go to the Food Bank and see if they have the $$ means to support it. Or, if the Food Bank can't support it you might consider asking a church. I do have a large church that I give my list of food items to and the congregation collects the items and they assemble bags at the church and bring me the bags - they do about 44 a month.

The YWCA Other Bank approached me and asked if they could assemble hygiene kits and bring them down. I let them know my numbers and they work hard to get me kits as often as possible. We also partner with South Sound Reading Foundation. I give them my numbers and they assemble books appropriate to the age/gender and take them to the schools where the kids get a free book.

So, the sky is the limit on the great things that can come from a program like this.