Program fed 600 children weekly
By Lizzy Martin
Baldwinsville Rotary Club President
Many years ago, Baldwinsville Rotary’s Ann Smiley saw a need. Children who relied on school meals during the week were at risk of hunger on the weekends.
Smiley partnered with Elden Elementary School to implement a Backpack Program, which provided a bag of snack and breakfast items that is dropped into a child’s backpack each Friday. The goal was to provide support with dignity, and it was successful for many years. Other organizations, like Baldwinsville Kiwanis, partnered with Rotary to support the program financially and with food drives at their annual Turkey Trot.
Even with expansion into other elementary schools over the years, the program was modest and served 30 students in the fall of 2019, limited by the need for families to sign off on receiving this support.
When schools closed mid-March and many families were being impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, Baldwinsville Rotary members saw an opportunity. The school district started a breakfast and lunch distribution program for children on free or reduced lunch with pickups three times during the week. The school district is a member of Baldwinsville Rotary, so it was easy to form a partnership so that we could provide our Backpack Program bags each Friday, adding to the nutritional support the schools were providing. The program went from 30 bags per week to over 200.
Then in mid-April, the school district expanded their food program to be available to any family in need and the Backpack Program again expanded to meet the demand. For the past month or more, the club has provided over 600 bags of breakfast and snack items that families pick up at Baker and Ray each Friday.
The program has truly been a community effort, with Rotarians at the helm. Rotarians have shopped, counted, sorted, bagged and delivered every single week; all while following social distancing and going through the same personal struggles everyone was subject to these past few months. The Baldwinsville Public Library donated the space and allowed access for Rotarians to use as their home base for food storage and bag assembly. St. Augustine’s, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and St. Mary’s churches collected food donations.
A new group formed to address community needs during the pandemic, Baldwinsville Helping Baldwinsville, took in donations for our program, among many others. Financial donations came in from members of Baldwinsville Rotary, the community, local business and Baldwinsville Kiwanis. The club also received a grant from their district, which provided funds to clubs all around Central New York helping in the wake of COVID-19.
Everything came together to ensure there was enough food each week through the end of the school year. The club is immensely proud of the Rotarians who took the lead and embraced the opportunity to serve.
With this as the final week of school for the 2019-20 school year, it is also the final week of the Backpack Program. In this week’s bags, the club included a flyer that the Baldwinsville Public Library created that gives families a list of resources available during summer break.
The final tallies are in: The club spent $10,500 on purchasing food, took in dozens of carloads of food donations from the community, packed over 6,500 bags and distributed almost 85,000 single serving food items to local children in need.
We don’t know what school will be like in September, but the Baldwinsville Rotary Club’s Backpack Program will be there in whatever form the community needs. The hope is that with the added visibility of the program this spring, more families will sign up next fall so the program can continue to serve as many as possible.
The Baldwinsville Rotary Club is a community service organization that has been giving back to our community for more than 45 years. Our diverse group of members work together to raise money and find helpful ways to put it back into the community, through scholarships, donations to other organizations and implementing programs such as this Backpack Program. The club is also very social, having fun while working together for the greater good. Guests are encouraged to attend a virtual meeting and learn more. Visit BaldwinsvilleRotary.org for the meeting schedule and email [email protected] to request a link to attend a meeting online.
