Providers at Benefis Health System are donating time and money to the Great Falls Community Food Bank to support their Backpacks 4 Kids program, which provides take-home meals for Great Falls elementary school students experiening food insecurity.
The Backpacks for Kids program packs 950 bags of food per week to distribute to all fifteen elementary schools in Great Falls, and the primary school in Vaughn.
The program has been around since 2012, and director of the Great Falls Community Food Bank Shaun Tatarka says, “It's hard to learn when you're hungry, and there were a lot of kids that were showing up on Fridays that weren't excited about the weekend because they weren't sure where their next meal was coming from. They, of course, were fed breakfast and lunch at school, but then, that weekend, there was little or no food at home.”
The Food Bank is currently working on expanding their Backpacks 4 Kids program to include both Great Falls middle schools as well. The Food Bank does currently support food pantries at both middle schools, as well as more than 20 other food pantries across the district, but expanding the program with easy-to-make, healthy food packages would increase access, and elementary students used to receiving the food packs would continue to do as they move into middle school.
Tatarka explains, “It improves the classroom behavior, improves attendance. And so we're hoping to, with a little luck, we're really pushing, we really would like to add the middle schools to this program. It's really just about getting the funding.”
It takes around 25 volunteer hours to pack the food bags for each week, and $130,000 annually to run the program. A program with the middle schools would require a 30% increase in the food bank’s budget.
Benefis Health System is donating $25,000 to the food bank this year, with $8,000 going directly to the Backpacks 4 Kids Program. Doctors at Benefis chose to give this money in celebration of National Doctor’s Day, and also donated hours of their time packing up the food.
Eldon LaTray, an Orthopedic Physician Assistant with Benefis Health System, was one of those volunteers. He says, “I think that's an amazing use of the money to donate to the Great Falls Food Bank. I just think people need help right now. This is a great program, I am proud to be here tonight. I think that food prices are going up and more people are probably needing assistance.”
The food bank will launch the backpack program at the middle schools once they receive enough funding to support the program for at least three years, which could be as soon as this fall. Click here to learn more about the Backpacks 4 Kids Program.
