Backpack Ministry

by Helen Greene

Our Backpack Children will soon be on Summer Vacation. We have had a great school year providing our 25 children with tasty and nutritious meals for their weekends.

Our Backpack Team will spend the summer restocking our pantry with fresh food for the next school year. We have decided to ask our congregation for 16oz. jars of peanut butter to be donated for the months of May, June and July. We give a fresh loaf of bread to the children every week and peanut butter every other week. They should be able to make themselves a sandwich when they want one. You can leave your donations in the light blue container located in the Welcome Center.

Thanks to everyone who has donated food, money or prayed for our ministry. May God Bless each one of you!

Spring is here and it won’t be long before our Backpack Children will be on Spring Break. We always send additional food home for the children’s break but we are limited because of the extra weight the children will be carrying.

After they return from their break they have only five more weeks of school. I am sure they are looking forward to Summer Vacation. Hopefully the Board of Education will make arrangements for a Summer Feeding Program as they have the past few summers.

Thanks to everyone who has donated food or money for our ministry and especially for your prayers. May God Bless You!

For the month of April please donate instant oatmeal packs.

As winter drags on we are watching for robins to arrive. We have blessings of sunny warm days occasionally to keep us hopeful that spring will soon be here.

Our Backpack Ministry has received a wonderful financial blessing. Mountaineer Food Bank notified us that we could receive $5,000. from the “Cares Act”. After completing the necessary forms, the check was mailed to us. We are so pleased to receive such a “Shower of Blessings”!

Food prices have been skyrocketing and we were fearful that we might have to cut back on the amount of food we give our Backpack Kids. God has always blessed our Ministry and provided enough for us to send our children tasty and nutritious food.

Thanks to each one of you for your contributions of money, food and prayers. May God Bless You!

For the month of March please donate fruit cups. Donations can be left on the back counter in the kitchen.

February is thought of as the month of Love since Valentine’s Day is on the 14th. I want to thank each one of you that has supported our Backpack Ministry so that we may show love and kindness to all of our Backpack Children. You are so appreciated for your donations of food, money and prayers for these children.

I love every one of you for your generosity. May God Bless You!

For the month of February please donate tomato or chicken noodle soup.
Reminder – You can get soup at ALDI’S Store for about 50 cents a can.

Volunteers are busy shopping for our Backpack Children’s Christmas gifts. Each child has a wish list for the gifts they would like. Of course we can’t purchase everything they want but we try to get the most practical items we can afford. Often we buy clothing, coats or shoes for them. We will deliver the gifts to the school on December 13th for the parents or guardians to pick up before Christmas.

Thanks to anyone who has donated food, cash or prayed for our Backpack Children. May God Bless You.

For the month of December please donate applesauce cups.

Our Backpack Ministry is going smoothly and we are still adding children to our list. Weekly we send them two breakfasts, two lunches, two dinners, a fresh loaf of bread and a bag of snacks.

Last month we were blessed to receive some free food from Mountaineer Food Bank. We received some individual breakfast cereal packs, Hormel Complete Meals as well as juice boxes. I am sure the children will enjoy our bounty.

For the month of November we are asking for tomato and chicken noodle soup. I know these items have gone up in price to $1.00 or more per can. We have found soup at ALDIS store for about $.50 per can. The quality is good and the price is right!

Thanks to everyone who has donated money, food or prayed for our Backpack Ministry. May God bless each one of you!

Fall is here with cooler weather and shorter days. It won’t be long before we will need to start shopping for our Backpack Children’s Christmas gifts. If you would like to shop for one or more of our children please let me know. It is fun to shop for them. We provide $100.00 for every child and a wish list for that child. We wrap every gift and return them to the school just before their Christmas vacation. Thanks to everyone who has donated food, money or prayed for our Backpack Ministry. May God Bless You!

For the month of October please donate pudding cups.

School is back in session and we are once again packing food for our Backpack Children.

We have shopped during the summer and have our pantry full of nutritious food ready for the children.

We had intended to use our packing teams to prepare the food for distribution but the Covid Virus is once again a threat to groups gathering. We will continue to use only a few people to pack until the Covid numbers decrease.

Thanks to everyone who has donated money, food or prayed for our Backpack Kids. May God Bless You!

For the month of September please donate cans of Vienna Sausages.

When our students get back in class hopefully we can get back to normal at last! We are buying food to stock our pantry for the upcoming school year. Hopefully we can get back to normal with our Backpack teams once again packing backpacks weekly. I will be contacting each of our team members to verify they are still interested in packing food once each month. I am sure we will need to make some changes but we always have enough great volunteers to get the job done. We would welcome any new volunteers to become part of our Backpack Ministry.

Last winter we were given over 500 jars of peanut butter from Helping Hands. We donated many of them to other backpack programs since we could not use them all before they expired. We still have peanut butter and have donated it to our Blessing Box Ministry to be given out before it expires in August. We will be needing fresh peanut butter to distribute to our Backpack Kids. For the months of July and August please donate peanut butter. God Bless everyone who has donated food, cash or prayed for our Backpack Kids.

Another school year is behind us and soon we will begin restocking our Backpack room. We will search all area stores and the Mountaineer Food Bank for healthy food and snacks for our Backpack Kids.

On May 26th we had representatives from Mountaineer Food Bank come to inspect our facility and review our procedures. Every two years they review each agency to make sure they are following all rules. We are pleased to announce that we passed with flying colors.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed in any way to support our Backpack Ministry. May God Bless You! Please continue to pray for our Backpack children to be happy and healthy.

For the month of June please donate cans of Tomato or Chicken Noodle soup.