THUNDER BAY – A charitable organization is looking to the community for help ensuring children won’t go without food during the upcoming school year.
Blessings in a Backpack is an international program created to ensure no child goes to school hungry by providing a backpack of food to take home on weekends. The program operates in 65 schools across Canada and feeds more than 2,200 children.
Amina Abu-Bakare brought Blessing in a Backpack to Thunder Bay in 2013, and in partnership with Our Kids Count and the Regional Food Distribution Association, has helped more than 600 children in the city.
“It is a program that fills a void because a lot of schools now have meals during the week, but on weekends, these children do not have anything to eat at home,” Abu-Bakare said.
Last year, 177 children received a backpack in six local schools. There are 134 children on a waiting list to join the program.
Abu-Bakare said there is not enough funding to supply everyone on the wait list with a backpack for the upcoming school year, and she is looking to the community for help.
In Thunder Bay it costs about $7.50 to feed a child every weekend for 40 weeks. The cost is slightly reduced in Thunder Bay due to support from the RFDA and Our Kids Count.
“We are lucky in Thunder Bay because the kids are getting food close to $7.50,” Abu-Bakare said. “If we want to maintain that, we need to raise enough money, which is why we are asking for help from the community.”
Abu-Bakare estimates that there are 14 schools that need assistance in Thunder Bay and that $90,000 is needed for the upcoming school year. She is asking the community for support by adopting a school or adopting a child or group of children at $300 per child.
“My philosophy is, whatever I get I am going to use,” Abu-Bakare said. “My pride will be in showing that no kid has to go hungry on a weekend in Thunder Bay. If I can get the money to take on all 300 kids, absolutely. If we can’t, whatever we get we will take on the kids we can and keep trying to get the other kids.”
Gladys Berringer, the executive director with Our Kids Count, said that it is a sad reality that a program like Blessings in a Backpack is needed in the city of Thunder Bay.
“The reality is that there are children that go without food for the weekend,” she said.
Berringer added that even after the first year the program was in Thunder Bay, they were already seeing positive results.
“When we had some feedback from one of the schools involved, the principal shared that the attendance on Monday improved because of the backpack program,” she said.
However, according to Abu-Bakare, this result also points to how challenging the situation really is in the city. She went on to explain that one child said that the best part of getting a backpack is being able to bring a lunch to school on Monday.
“When you give a kid just enough to eat for Saturday and Sunday and she still keeps extra to bring to school on Monday, there is a problem,” she said.
Donations are accepted at www.blessinginabackpack.ca. All money raised stays in the city of Thunder Bay.
