During the 2018-2019 school year, an average of 303 area children received bags of food for the weekend.
The food is single-serving, requiring little to no preparation, and easy for children to consume. The “backpacks” or bags of food supply students with nutritious meals to get them through the weekend.
Each year, a special drive is held to make sure Richland County and Wilkin County students have the food they need on the weekends, when they aren’t receiving meals from school.
The Richland Wilkin Food Pantry is launching a new fundraising initiative in August this year for the weekend food backpack program, “Nourishing Our Future.”
They have partnered with Econofoods in both Wahpeton and Breckenridge, Minnesota, to allow shoppers the opportunity to donate at the checkout lane. The pantry was awarded a grant from Thrivent to assist with promotional materials.
Laurie Drewlow, who is on the food pantry’s board of directors and is the head fundraiser for the backpack program, said last year, jars were set out at banks to collect donations and a promotional video was created to raise awareness.
“We looked at how people operate and we thought the grocery store has more traffic than the banks these days,” she said.
Customers at Econofoods will be asked if they would like to donate $1 or $4 to the food backpack program, and that can be added on to their grocery bill.
“It works through their computer system. We’re trying to make donating easier for people,” Drewlow explained.
The reason $4 is an option is because it’s the average cost of a bag of food for the weekend.
Econofoods has also pledged to match the first $500 in donations.
The food backpack program goes into all 11 schools in Wilkin and Richland counties. Drewlow said when school started last year, the number of students served was in the high 200s and by the end of the school year, they were serving 319 each weekend.
“We’re looking to sustain the program and not do those emergency calls for peanut butter, for example,” she said. “We’re trying to avoid that so there is more stability in the program and for peace of mind for the families, so they know there will be a backpack program.”
Monetary donations are preferred during this time, as the food pantry has limited storage space, making it difficult to accept large amounts of product.
“With monetary donations, we can purchase what’s needed in the upcoming weeks for the backpacks,” Drewlow said.
Another initiative, Backpack Buddies, will be rolled out around the time school starts, and it will reach out to churches and civic organizations requesting donations of $125 to sponsor a child for a year. A third initiative will involve corporate partners which can provide support at three different levels. That is expected to begin later in September.
“We know we have this incredibly generous community and corporate partners who have helped us in the past,” Drewlow said. “We just really want to stabilize funding so parents can know there will be that support for weekend meals for kids.”
Donations may also be made directly to the Richland Wilkin Backpack Program by mailing a check or dropping one off at the food pantry, located at at 699 Eighth Ave. S., Wahpeton, North Dakota 58075. Hours are 4-6 p.m. Monday, 1-3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 6:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday.
