There are children in Jackson County who don’t want to leave school on Friday afternoons because they don’t know when they’ll get to eat again.

It’s called food insecurity, and it affects 1 in 5 youth in Indiana.

But thanks to a partnership between a statewide food bank, a group of homemakers, a major industrial employer and a local church, more than 200 students in the county are receiving free food to take home every weekend.

[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]

Click here to purchase photos from this gallery

Recently, Jackson County Extension Homemakers presented a check for $2,000 to Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana to provide sacks of food for students to take home in their backpacks on Fridays.

Audrey Luecke, president of the Jackson County Extension Homemakers, said the group has a strong desire to support youth in the community.

“You always want to make sure children are fed and nourished and feel important, and we want them to know that someone cares about them,” she said. “Part of our responsibility as an organization is to provide to the community, and so this is one way we felt we could do that.”

The homemakers learned of the BackSack program when Molly Marshall, director of Healthy Jackson County, came to speak during one of their meetings.

The program isn’t new but is one many people aren’t aware of, Marshall said.

“I think it really was an eye-opener for them because they didn’t know that hunger was such a problem here,” she said.

But once they were educated on the need, the group felt like they could make a difference.

Each BackSack contains nine healthy items kids will like to eat. The food requires no refrigeration or preparation and is easy to open, including two bags of cereal, a can of beef ravioli, a can of spaghetti rings, a Clif bar, a container of mandarin oranges, peanut butter and jelly squeezers and a pudding cup.

Contents of the BackSacks are enough for several small meals to last the weekend, and students are able to keep the food secure in their backpacks so no one else gets it.

Peter Erotas, manager of community and corporate engagement with Gleaners, said the BackSack program is one of the organization’s most popular services.

Anywhere from 6,000 to 9,000 BackSacks a week are distributed statewide, he said.

A total of 234 BackSacks were distributed weekly at eight schools in Jackson County during the 2017-18 school year. That number has dropped to 216 sacks for this school year.

The cost is around $5 per sack, and because of Gleaners’ ability to procure food at cheaper costs, $1 donation can equal three meals, Erotas said.

That means the extension homemakers’ donation will end up providing 400 sacks of food for hungry kids in the county.

Gleaners, which serves 21 counties in the state, provides all of the food included in the sacks, and local volunteers are utilized to pack them. In Jackson County, sacks are put together weekly by employees of Cummins Inc. Seymour Engine Plant and Crothersville Church of the Nazarene.

“We have a lot of fantastic community stakeholders in all of our communities,” Erotas said. “We cannot do it without them, both financially as well as with manpower and volunteers.”

Renee Wilson, an administrative associate at Cummins and a member of the company’s community involvement team, heads the BackSack project there.

Cummins has been involved for at least a decade, she said.

Former plant manager Darren Wildman learned many kids in area schools were struggling to focus in class on Monday mornings because of hunger.

So he started the project at Cummins and even funded it himself when he had to, Wilson said.

“(Wildman) said before he left that he never wanted it to be shut down,” Wilson said.

The company also helps fund the project, which cost $37,440 last year in Jackson County, according to Gleaners.

Wilson said the BackSack project is one that is close to her heart.

“It’s hard to imagine that happens in Seymour,” she said of food insecurity. “When I walked in here the first time and saw all that food, I got emotional.”

The number of sacks distributed is based on a school’s free and reduced lunch population, Erotas said.

Those participating are Brownstown Elementary School, Brownstown Central Middle School, Crothersville Elementary School, Crothersville Junior-Senior High School, Medora Elementary School, Margaret R. Brown Elementary School, Seymour-Redding Elementary School and Seymour-Jackson Elementary School.

The most sacks are distributed at Brown and Jackson elementary schools with 42 sacks going to Brown students and 54 at Jackson weekly. Last school year, they each received 60 sacks.

The next two biggest deliveries are at Brownstown Elementary and Redding Elementary with 36 sacks each.

Gleaners also runs school-based food pantries at Seymour High School and Brownstown Central High School and a summer meal distribution program.

“The thing with hunger is it’s invisible, especially with kids, because of how resilient they are,” Erotas said.

The BackSack program is very discreet so kids don’t feel embarrassed because they are receiving food, he said. A teacher or staff member puts the sacks in the students’ backpacks.

“The school usually is already working with those children,” he said of how students are identified for the program.

Cummins employee Henry Egejuru said the BackSacks program is a great initiative.

“Being able to put a smile on someone’s face is great, and it’s even better when it’s a kid’s face,” he said.

Coming from Nigeria, Egejuru said he has witnessed hunger, but he doesn’t believe children should ever go hungry.

“These kids don’t deserve to be hungry,” he said. “They should be worried about school, what they wear, who their friends are, getting their work done, not where their next meal is going to come from.”

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”By the numbers” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

School;2018-19 BackSacks allocation;2017-18 BackSacks allocation

Brownstown Elementary School;36;36

Brownstown Central Middle School;12;6

Crothersville Elementary School;18;18

Crothersville Junior-Senior High School;12;6

Medora Elementary School;6;6

Margaret R. Brown Elementary School;42;60

Seymour-Redding Elementary School;36;42

Seymour-Jackson Elementary School;54;60

Totals;216;234

[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”At a glance” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

To help support the Gleaners BackSack program or its other initiatives to feed the hungry in Jackson County, contact Peter Erotas at 317-925-0191, ext. 118, or email [email protected].

[sc:pullout-text-end]