Middlesex Clubs Feeds Kids on Weekends

by Present-Elect William Shumanm, Kiwanis of Middlesex

Ever wonder what happens to those children who receive free lunch and or breakfast at school, over the week ends? Well here in Middlesex County a new club has been formed, by one of our member's wives. Backpack Buddy Club is formed in our Elementary School, and children are selected by the staff to become members. Each child is given a back pack, and each Friday this back pack is packed with food items and given to the child. Many parents work on weekends, or just can't afford a lunch on the weekend and now all the child has to do is remove the items from a refrigerator and eat.

Last year 30 million free lunches were given out in our school systems, and to qualify a family of four had to make less then $28,665. In Virginia alone we had 285 thousand children on the program. In this program only the elementary child is being looked after.

The cost is $200.00 a year per student and our elementary school has picked about 100 to become members. Linda Cryer came up with the idea last year and now it is up and running with the help of 'Hands Across Middlesex'. By looking on the internet you can find that there many other programs like this across the country. A hungry child is not a good student, and anything that can be done to help make a better student we have to do it. This is why Middlesex Kiwanis has given $1,000.00 towards this new idea. Pictured above Present-Elect Bill Shuman is seen presenting a check to Dave Cryer who is a member of our club. Dave presented a program that described the process that takes place to ear-mark the child, how the food is handled, and showed us what items of food were used. Before we gave our check to Backpack, they had enough money to help 67 students.