October 25, 2013 Meeting
Speakers topic: Grant Elementary Three Square Program
We welcomed our Club 21 visitors to the Club. We attended their meeting on Thursday and had a wonderful time. It was nice to see them return the favor.
Our speakers today were Mary Weber, Principal and Joanne Ferris, Counselor, from Grant Elementary. Firstly, we presented some grant checks. One for $500 was presented to Freda Gandy, the Executive Director of the Martin Luther King Center. The other was a grant check of $300 for shoes for the students at Grant Elementary. They were very surprised and were all so grateful that we have continued to help their programs.
Mary told us that they now distribute the food-packed backpacks, letting the students come pick them up throughout the day at their own convenience. They honor the student’s confidentiality, identifying them only by numbers. Right now, they hand out 20 backpacks, full of three meals for each day of the weekend, for the student and also for any sibling under 18 at the home. They have four different menus available and go through 260 pounds of every two weeks. Often, the older sibling will come and pick up the backpack for the younger ones, because the backpacks can be quite heavy.
Washington is sixth in growing in hunger in the nation and there is a real need for this program. Many people see Spokane as a refuge. The working poor, who are not on food stamps, really struggle in the state.
Joanne is the one who facilitates the packing and handing out of the backpacks. They use non-descript backpacks, so they aren’t identified by other students. They hand them out on Fridays and often the parent will come to get them. The siblings get the same amount of food as the student, so no child goes hungry over the weekend. There is no advertising of the program, as the students are either self-referred or identified as being in need by a teacher. As word of the program spreads, it will probably grow. Although they do 20 backpacks a week, they could probably go as high as doing 25.
We had some interesting questions; whether they could cater to a very young sibling by including food for babies, whether they could use volunteers to help them pack the backpacks and how the program came about. They aren’t able to supply specialized food right now, but it is something to think about. They would absolutely welcome any help we could give in helping load the backpacks; something that the club needs to think about! The program started when Julie Delaney from NW Harvest came and spoke to the club. Kimber and Karol thought the program was very special and started to come up with a plan on how to help. This is a prime example of how one member can make a difference in our community. There are seven or eight schools in District 81 with this food program, but Grant Elementary is the only one funded by a non-profit. The rest have backing by companies and businesses.
The food program has shown to make a difference in the student’s ability to learn. We all know that when the brain is fed, it works better. So now, students who ate their meals at school and went hungry all weekend, are doing better in school and have better attitudes and behavior.
Darren reminded us that we need to be sure to share this story when talking to people at the Auction. They need to know that their money is going to fund such the Three Square and the Book Programs. We also need to be sure to bring out bottles of wine to the next meeting; we still don’t have enough for the Auction activity.
Notices:
The Apple Gleaning is still tentatively scheduled for November 9th from 9am to noon. We should know more soon.
We have a new exchange student from New Zealand: Simi Bagby. Karol will let us know more later.
Darren Digiacinto and MaryAnn Dalessi were honored for perfect attendance.