Who Will Feed The Children This Weekend? (available during the school year)
Can you imagine going 65 hours between your lunch at school on Friday and your possible breakfast at school on Monday morning? Can you imagine feeding 900 children every weekend? That is what Blessings in a Backpack-Huron Valley did in the 2023-24 school year. The number was up to 1000 children every weekend in 2024-25. The need is great! Nationally, approximately 25% of children are food insecure. The need is closer to 33% in the Huron Valley School District. And we provide nutrient dense food that young children can prepare themselves without a risk of burns.
Our local program has a formal partnership with the national Blessings in a Backpack program, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization feeding 88,900 children in fall 2020 at more than 1,090 schools in 46 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
Since 2014, the Huron Valley Optimists have partnered with Blessings in a Backpack (www.blessingsinabackpack.org) to create the local program, Blessings in a Backpack-Huron Valley. All donations intended for Huron Valley Schools should indicate Huron Valley as the program of choice.
As Covid19 has taken its toll on children in our local schools, and the cost of food has skyrocketed, food insecurity has grown. What is food insecurity? A food-insecure household has limited or uncertain access to enough food to support a healthy life. For a child, not knowing when or if a meal will be prepared for them exacerbates their food insecurity.
Three out of four teachers say they have children in their classrooms who regularly come to school hungry. The consequences of hunger are much more than a growling stomach. Poor nutrition can result in a weaker immune system, increased hospitalization, lower IQ, shorter attention spans, and lower academic achievement. Children are fed during the school week by federal government programs. We want to make sure they’re getting nutritional meals over the weekend, too.
National Blessings in a Backpack has partnered with Quaker Oats and Ipsos, a leading global market research company, on a national evaluation project that measures program impact on a deeper level than bags and pounds of food distributed.This project involved various Blessings’ stakeholders, such as children and teachers, in the evaluation process. Surveys found that, in addition to no longer feeling weekend hunger pangs, children fed by Blessings experience the following impact on their lives:
- 78% of kids feel cared for by their community.
- 71% of kids feel that Blessings is helping their family.
- 60% of kids have fewer behavioral issues.
- 60% of children report that their school attendance is better.
- 59% find it is easier to learn at school
More information about the national program can be found at https://www.blessingsinabackpack.org/ Please note that donations can be accepted for the local program on this website, but please be sure to specify it is for the Huron Valley program.
Fundraisers to help support this program include:
- Comedy Fundraiser each year in the Spring
- Flower Fundraiser each year before Memorial Day
- Adopt a Child
- Special Olympic Tickets
Contact us at blessingshv@gmail.com if you would like to help fundraise, sponsor a group of children, or purchase food and organize a special packing for one or more weekends.