By TARA HETTINGER
Tara.Hettinger@newsandtribune.com
CHARLESTOWN — Seeing people walk in with boxes filled with food, Molly Harrett got teary-eyed.
The librarian at Jonathan Jennings Elementary School knows all to well how much this will help students.
“I’m a former cafeteria worker from Pleasant Ridge [Elementary School] and I saw kids taking food from the trash or eating after other kids. Over here, I’d hear kids saying, especially on Mondays, that ‘I’m hungry,’” Harrett said. “I was like we have a problem over here.”
Jonathan Jennings Principal Adrienne Bach noticed the same.
The two of them and many more teamed up to find a solution. They found that in Blessings in a Backpack, an international organization that gives children a backpack every Friday filled with food to last them for the weekend.
It is funded by local donations.
Bach said she notices every week how hungry children are when seeing them so eager to get breakfast.
“It’s a total responsibility. You take that on,” she said, explaining how she felt seeing children feel hungry. “I have been made aware of this and it’s up to me to do something about it.”
So, the fundraising started earlier this year. It took until this week for everything to be in order and ready to ship out the first 20 backpacks. On Wednesday, volunteers filled those with full-sized boxes of cereal, peanut butter, tuna fish and other items.
“I’ve got goosebumps,” Harrett said as she saw all the food coming to the library and being put on the tables prior to going in the backpacks. “I’m relieved. Now that I’m getting it going, I want to get more funding and get it over at Pleasant Ridge as well.”
Bach also hopes for more funding. She said at least 20 more children could use this weekly help. However, her big goal is to feed the 200 students who are on the free/reduced lunch payment plan.
She said the whole community is stepping up to fund this program. Harrett agreed.
“We had one mother who probably could be in this program give us $20,” she said.
And that will go a long way. According to Blessings in a Backpack, $2.10 will feed a child for a weekend and $80 will feed a child for every weekend during the school year.
Bach said that will help the children for the school year, adding that during the summer, everyone in the area who is hungry can come to the school for a free lunch during the week.
