As winter break approaches, students everywhere are looking forward to a respite from lugging around their backpacks.
Meanwhile, two local organizations are looking forward to handing them out.
The Flemington-based Hunterdon County Partnership for Health and Phillipsburg-based NORWESCAP Food Bank have implemented a Backpack Program in Hunterdon County schools through which food insecure students receive a backpack containing nutritious food and drinks on a weekly basis.
According to Kim Blanda, coordinator and executive committee member for the partnership, as well as a registered nurse and clinical liaison and project director for Hunterdon Healthcare, the program was organized a few years ago after a local school nurse approached her to express concerns about the wellbeing of students that had come to see her.
“There were some students of her’s that she honestly didn’t know if they were eating over the weekend, and of course that’s just so alarming," Blanda said. "So I started to talk to more of the school nurses, and there were a lot of concerns throughout the county that there were children who were experiencing food insecurity.”
While searching for a means of providing aid to these students, Blanda learned about NORWESCAP’s Backpack Program, which she said at the time was servicing four students from one school in the county.
The county Partnership for Health teamed up with NORWESCAP and local school nurses in hopes of expanding the program. With support from New Jersey Health Initiatives, the statewide grant-making program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Backpack Program currently services approximately 100 students from 12 schools in the area.
Development Coordinator at NORWESCAP Janet Bray explained that students receive the backpacks, which are prepared by the Food Bank, in a “very discreet” manner from school nurses each week, most frequently on Fridays.
“We have families who have pride, and it’s hard for them to go to a food pantry. So this is anonymous," Bray said. “We don’t know any children’s names or anything. The school nurses get the backpacks and ... they all have procedures for how they hand them out.”
“The school nurses really -- they’re the ones who get the gold stars,” Blanda added. “(Students) can trust in their school nurses, and they do trust in their school nurses.”
A local Hunterdon County school nurse who hands out between 17 and 18 backpacks each week said students are really happy with the backpacks, and look forward to the food each Friday.
While the content of the backpacks varies every week, each one consistently contains shelf-stable foods like fruit cups, cereal packets, protein drinks, and boxes of macaroni and cheese.
“They get all of the components of what you would need for proper nutrition over the course of a day, and they receive enough meals to have from when they get out of school on Friday to when they return on Monday," Blanda explained.
“It’s just enough to get them through the weekend if there isn’t anything in the refrigerator or in the cupboards,” Bray echoed.
While the program is active throughout the entirety of the school year, Blanda said that students receive extra staples from NORWESCAP throughout the holiday season.
“(The backpacks) help them get them through that longer period when they don’t have access to the free lunch and breakfast programs at the school," Blanda explained.
The items in the backpack also become more diversified with the changing seasons, Blanda stating that this time of year many students will receive gloves and hats in addition to food and drinks.
“(NORWESCAP) tries to add additional things based on what the season is, and things they know people can use and might be harder for them to access," Blanda said.
Bray explained that students involved in the program are those that the school nurses -- or, on some occasions, school administrators or counselors -- identify as an individual “in need" of aid because of poverty or unforeseen circumstances like divorce, death or job loss.
Both Bray and Blanda emphasized their desire to heighten awareness of the pervasiveness of these types of individuals throughout the county.
“Hunterdon County is a county in which poverty is prevalent," Bray said. However, because it is in pockets throughout the county, "it isn’t really recognized or addressed as much as it should be.”
Blanda said, “Just the fact that we’ve already expanded it to twelve schools, and that’s throughout the county. It’s not like they’re all in one area. So it really does exist here, and we’re trying to let people know if they’re able to contribute to programs like this, it really makes a difference for the community."
Despite the presence of food insecurity across the region, the program is currently confined to local elementary schools and one middle school partially due to a lack of interest rather than a lack of need amongst county high school students.
“It’s more difficult as the kids get older, because the kids become smarter and they realize what’s going on, and no one wants to be identified as the student who doesn’t have enough food,” Blanda explained.
Expressing a desire to expand the program regardless of this obstacle, Bray, who ostensibly runs the program by herself with the assistance of one regular volunteer, nonetheless added that its growth is dependent upon additional funding.
“It’s a very expensive program to run ... And it’s a capacity thing; we’re limited (in space and staff). So we try to get to the need ... in the schools where we know there’s a high need for this particular program," Bray explained.
While recognizing that generosity tends to be greatest during the holiday season, both Blanda and Bray stressed that individuals struggling with food insecurity should be prioritized all year long.
“Even though we may be thinking about it more as people have food drives, and holiday giving programs … people eat all year long, so we would encourage people not only to think about it during the holidays,” Blanda said.
“The holiday season is fortunately when these things come to light, but it’s really not just the holidays that we need to think of these children and these programs. It’s an ongoing issue, and it’s an increasing issue,” Bay said.
Individuals can make donations to NORWESCAP online.
They can also support the program by donating to the Hunterdon Healthcare Foundation, where they can designate the backpack program initiative by selecting “Other” and putting “food insecurity” in the description box.
Caroline Fassett can be reached at cfassett@njadvancemedia.com.
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