Butler students receive extra food for winter break
The Butler Area School District's Kids' Weekend Backpack Program provides food to 287 students in eight elementary schools every week.
The district's winter break is nearly two weeks, from Dec. 22 to Jan. 3. To prepare the students for the lack of free school lunches, the volunteers who run the backpack program are packing more than $5,000 worth of food that is meant to last them the entire break.
“For the Christmas break, we'll be giving them 55 items each,” said Audray Muscatello Yost, a team leader for the backpack program. “We give food that is not only nutritious, but is single-serve and it can only be microwaveable and you only have to add water, so it's easy for the children to make.”
The backpack program got its start in the district seven years ago when Kim Thomas, a special education teacher at McQuistion, heard about backpack programs in other school districts.
She said starting the program was a way to organize a group of people to combat the issue of food insecurity faced by many in the district.
“Sometimes you even keep toothbrushes and toothpaste in the classroom for kids who need it,” Thomas said. “Just the idea that kids don't have adequate food supply in their home shocked the community.”
The backpack program started at McQuistion, and now serves eight elementary schools in the district: Center Avenue, Center Township, Emily Brittain, Northwest, McQuistion, Summit, Connoquenessing and Broad Street, according to Thomas. The backpack program is run through the Golden Tornado Foundation, of which Muscatello Yost is also a board member.According to Thomas, the need for the program increases around the holidays nearly every year.“We just had some more kids join around the holiday season that they need to support,” she said. “Over the holidays, we'll give them bigger portions over the break.”Muscatello Yost said in addition to the 55 food items going home with the children for winter break, they will also each get two discovery toys as Christmas gifts. Muscatello Yost said the toys are donations from the Zelienople Miracle on Main Street event.
Volunteers with the backpack program pack the food bags at Emily Brittain Elementary or Crossfire United Methodist Church on North Main Street Extension, and then work with school coordinators who “discretely” deposit the packs into students' bookbags before the weekend.She said the program needs cooperation and support from multiple people in different positions to work efficiently.“We have a lot of volunteers in order to get this done,” Muscatello Yost said. “People are so generous ... We could not do this without the community.”Muscatello Yost said the number of children served by the backpack program fluctuates regularly as a child and their parent or guardian's situation changes during a school year.“Maybe someone is out of work and they need their kid to be in the program,” Muscatello Yost said. “We have had people bring donations in because they used to be in the backpack program and they want to help out.”Muscatello Yost said students are often excited when they know a food pack has been dropped in their backpack prior to a weekend. She said she and the dozens of volunteers in the program are glad to be able to give the 287 children food to fill them over Christmas break.“It's really sad that we have a population of children that are food insecure,” Muscatello Yost said. “It's sad, but it's a much needed program and I know they appreciate it.”Thomas has hopes to expand the program in the coming years.“Our ultimate goal is to add on other grades because we know food insecurity doesn't end after fourth grade,” Thomas said.
