By AMANDA KIMBLE
TheFlashToday.com
Editor’s Note: Due to the fact that childhood hunger should be a personal issue for all of us, Staff Writer Amanda Kimble chose to write this story in first person and in a somewhat editorial fashion.
ERATH COUNTY (March 9, 2017) – It’s shocking. Saddening. Hunger is serious, and it’s very close to home.
Two hundred and 70 school children – 107 at Stephenville ISD, 51 in Three Way, 50 in Dublin, 29 in Lingleville, 12 in Huckabay, 11 in Bluff Dale and 10 in Morgan Mill – are served by Backpack Buddies of Erath County.
Stop and think about the fact that Three Way ISD has a student enrollment of about 115 students and almost half of them need your help.
Backpack Buddies was organized several years ago to provide assistance and the nonprofit organization quietly does just that.
But, a group of community leaders, savvy business people, are making a lot of noise about it. Each of us should take the time to listen to what they’re saying. And, we should tell everyone we know what we are hearing.
Leadership Stephenville Class of 2017 has organized an awareness and fundraising campaign to help further the mission of Backpack Buddies. That mission is to ensure all Erath County students receive sufficient nutrition from the time the school bell rings every Friday until class resumes each Monday morning throughout the school year.
Imagine for a moment a weekend without food. Think about hunger pangs you could not satisfy.
The Leadership Stephenville effort took the spotlight at the Stephenville Chamber of Commerce Banquet last month when 270 wooden peg dolls, each representing a child currently served by the program, were centered on a banquet table.
The dolls are cute and relatable. Childhood hunger is not.
The pegs were taken home by banquet attendees. They’ve promised to return them at a specified time to help raise money for Backpack Buddies of Erath County. I will share more on that a little later.
Aside from school colors and letters, varying skin tones and an array of hair colors, the pegs are nondescript, a fact Shelby Slawson, Leadership Stephenville class president, attributes to the anonymity of the children served.
Teachers, principals and school counselors who work with students – your children, my children, our children – see the need and provide information to the nonprofit.
Backpacks filled with food, which the organization purchases from the Tarrant Area Food Bank, are quietly distributed to campuses and taken home by students every Friday.
There is no hoopla or public announcement about the weekly distribution. The idea is to allow affected children whose daily lives include worries of food insecurity to maintain dignity among their peers.
Welfare is oftentimes dehumanizing. Why is that when the definition is “aid in the form of money or necessities for those in need?”
“Need!”
Despite the fact that supporters of the program don’t know the names of the students served by Backpack Buddies, have not seen their faces, their presence is something Leadership Stephenville classmates is asking the entire community to recognize.
Open your eyes.
While picking up a morning breakfast burrito on the way to work, grabbing a salad for a quick lunch or sitting down to a hot family dinner, one fact remains for too many local families – even in Stephenville, Texas in the good old U S of A – hunger is real.
Food insecurity knows no boundaries. These children live down the road, just across town or even next door.
While it might be difficult to comprehend, the issue of childhood hunger can be seen through the number of students on the free and reduced meal program at schools across the county. On average, 50 percent or more of area students are fed by the program. Many of the same children rely on summer feeding program for breakfast and lunch when school is not in session – if they have transportation and a chaperone.
Perhaps harder to accept is the fact that these children come from varying backgrounds. You probably see their families and consider at least some of them middle class. Some are being raised in single-parent households. Other families two parents and a single income. Some caregivers work full-time jobs and simply struggle to balance meager wages with the rising costs of rent, health insurance, utilities and everyday needs.
Not all of them qualify for government assistance. Not all of them will apply.
It is unfair to consider their parents deadbeats, lazy or free loaders.
They are you. I am them.
Slawson makes a strong and important point. It doesn’t matter who these children are. The reason they need support should be irrelevant.
She’s right.
The cost of hunger – poor health, the inability to focus, maybe even the crime of stealing to feed, clothe and provide – is high.
The cost of feeding a child is not.
Slawson says weekend food rations cost less than many community members spend on a cup of coffee. For less than the cost of a classmate’s newest pair of Nike tennis shoes, a student in need could be fed for an entire semester. If a local family was willing to cut their spring break getaway a day short, they could fill a backpack – or two, three or four – for an entire school year.
“The cost to provide weekend food for each student is $5 for a weekend, $30 for six-weeks, $90 for a semester and $180 for an entire school year,” Slawson said, adding school district employees have reported that students often share their backpacks with younger siblings.
A $5 bill might be feeding two, three or more children for the weekend.
Humbling indeed.
When it comes to the fundraising effort, Leadership Stephenville has taken on a three-fold approach.
First, they ask that you take a look at your own personal or business budget. Could you spare $5? What about $180? If so, you can simply make a cash donation to Backpack Buddies or Erath County.
Secondly, Leadership Stephenville will host Burgers for Backpack Buddies 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Friday, March 31. The hamburger lunch is available for $5 per ticket, and the organization quickly sold out of the first 500 tickets.
Do the math – that’s enough to provide backpacks for 27 children for an entire semester.
Tickets can still be purchased at TexasBank, Slawson Roofing or Easter Air.
Slawson said generous community supporters continue to donate supplies for the luncheon, meaning every dollar earned will go to the cause.
We live in a great community!
Finally, remember the pegs? Chamber banquet attendees have been babysitting them since the event and made a promise to return them. Local businesses, organizations and families have pledged to donate a specific amount of money for every peg returned on March 31.
At last count, the pledge was at almost $30 per peg – if all 270 are returned, Backpack Buddies will receive close to $8,100. That’s enough to feed 45 children for an entire school year.
Please, if you have a peg, take it to the hamburger luncheon or give it to someone else who will.
For information about supporting Backpack Buddies, contact Slawson through the Burgers for Backpack Buddies Facebook event page or by emailing shelby@SlawsonLawFirm.com
While you’re on the event page, make sure to take a look around. Read the posts and see all the places these peg children have been over the last few weeks. They are places supporters are taking them and places where contributors work and play. They are also places the peg’s human counterparts may never have the chance to visit.
Reality is harsh. But, we have the ability to shape it.
With that, I leave you with a quote from a Polish poet, Stanislaw Jerzy Lec.
“You can close your eyes to reality but not to memories.”
Let’s help shape childhood memories of security and happiness, not hunger, insecurity and anguish.
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