Belmont County Farm Bureau is packing a punch towards food insecurity
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE - The Belmont County Farm Bureau will host its annual school backpack program packing event on Nov. 21 starting at noon and Nov. 22 starting at 1 p.m. at the Ickes Family Life Center at 67880 Friends Church Rd.
Program organizer Devin Cain visited the Belmont County Commissioners on Tuesday morning to discuss the event and seek volunteers.
The Farm Bureau provides 660 backpacks to area children in need in all Belmont County public schools, except Martins Ferry School, every weekend. On Nov. 21-22, a semi truck full of food will pull up to the Ickes Center and volunteers will take the bulk ingredients out of the semi and place them all on tables.
"We pack bags that get weighed and sealed, put in boxes, and then those get distributed to the schools and they put them into backpacks, usually on Fridays for the kids to go home on the weekends," Cain said. "When I first started the project, I called around to the schools and found out that most kids eat their food before they get home because their parents are taking it from them. So this is a package of six servings that the kids that just have to boil water, put the contents in the boiling water and have something to eat over the weekend."
He added the program was in Martins Ferry Schools last year when the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program was postponed, but the school decided not to do it again this year.
"It’s just one of my projects to work to get back into Martins Ferry. It’s been my goal to get into every school in the district. When we had them last year, we were at 853 backpacks per weekend," Cain said.
Martins Ferry Mayor John Davies was attending the meeting for a separate reason and asked Cain why Martins Ferry Schools decided to not participate this school year.
"I had a teacher contact me and asked 'How can we get meals to feed these kids?' She’s had some pushback from either the principal or the superintendent about doing this, and I said, 'There’s no money involved. All you have to do is pass them out. I’ll bring the meals to you. Just put them in backpacks," Cain said. "So they did that, and then once the school year ended, she said they didn’t want to be involved anymore."
Davies then asked Cain for his contact information and said if the school doesn't want to give the students the free meals, the city will work with Cain because he knows the need is there. Martins Ferry Service Director Andy Sutak, who was also at Tuesday’s meeting, added the city owns the Rec Center and can hand out meals to children from there.
"Our rec center could be opened up any time for these kids to come and get whatever, so maybe we can get together and correlate that with you," Sutak said.
This year’s bookbags will have pasta, red sauce and a Spanish rice meal.
"This is the first time we’ve ever done that so we'll see how the kids react to the rice meal. I have a feeling they’re tired of macaroni and cheese that we’ve been doing every year since. So we’re trying a different meal," Cain said.
He added the program has skyrocketed since starting in 2019 and he has received a lot of help from Belmont County Job and Family Services in regards to funding.
Each meal costs $2.40 to pack and it costs roughly $60,000 per year to fund the program.
From 2019-21 the program was completely funded through the community, and then DJFS approached Cain to inform him that there were grants available to help fund the program. Cain said that DJFS has fully funded the program from 2021 until now, but due to government funding cuts, he expects to have to return to community funding to afford to continue the program.
He added nearly all the students who receive food are elementary and middle school students. Cain believes the need for the meals exists in the high schools, but has found high school students more reluctant to admit they need the help, which he hopes changes.
To participate in helping pack the bags of food on Nov. 21 or Nov. 22, contact Cain at (740) 425-3681 or belmont@ofbf.org.