News : Operation Backpack now serving more than 90 VS students

John Eden & Operation Backpack organizer Riley Ries unload boxes of food at Tilford.

Kurt Karr of Monkeytown delivered the food from the HACAP warehouse to Tilford recently.

HACAP warehouse workers load the Monkeytown van for delivery to VS students.

The numbers on this white board show how the program has grown in recent years.

A letter from an eastern Iowa school principal tells the story of a single mom who came home from work one afternoon to find her children gathered around the dining room table, which they had set with a variety of food items they had brought home from their school.

“We notice that at times you do not eat, but today you will,” they told her.

“That letter will bring tears to your eyes,” says HACAP Project Backback Coordinator Greg Goodell, who has been working this year with seniors Riley Ries and Kylie Miracle on helping to feed Vinton-Shellsburg’s neediest families.

Ries and Miracle began working on the program over the summer, expecting to reach about 50 students in grades K-6 at Tilford and Shellsburg elementaries and VS Middle School. Now, however, they send food home with 92 students each Friday.

Vinton-Shellsburg is one of 65 eastern Iowa school districts which work with HACAP and the national Feeding America organization on Operation Backpack. The program offers a variety of “child-friendly,” non-perishable food items that children can prepare on their own. Approximately 1,700 children receive a bag of food each Friday in the districts that participate via HACAP.

Riley and Kylie began the program when the school year started; they spent their summer preparing the program and seeking local donations. So far they have raised about $7,500 of the expected total cost of $20,000.

"Riley is amazing," said Goodell, who adds that he cannot say enough good things about how the senior has made the program work at V-S. Riley read through the handbook for local organizers, then came to Goodell with questions about how to implement the program.

"He is going to be hard to replace next year," said Goodell.

One of four American children has issues with food security, said Goodell, who has heard many stories from educators about the impact of hunger on students. The program is designed to both meet the needs at home, and to improve those students' educational opportunities.

"In one of our schools, a young man was sick, but he said he did not want to go home until after lunch, because there was nothing to eat at home," says Goodell.

Tilford Student Service Coordinator Molly Noren works with Riley and Kylie on the program. Along with several high school volunteers who help unload the monthly deliveries and pack the bags for weekly distribution, there have been many local residents and businesses who have helped.

"We'd like to thank several community members who have donated money and special thanks to Pepsi/Quaker for the food donations. Thanks to Monkeytown for picking up the food in Hiawatha. Thanks to Roger Uthoff for driving down to pick up the food and arranging for donations from Pepsi/Quaker. We'd also like to thank Clickstop and TTT for their donations," says Noren.

A white board in the HACAP food distribution warehouse indicate that more than one million pounds left that site in Hiawatha in the past three months. Not long ago, said Goodell, that number was closer to 100,000.

Children in rural areas often have a more difficult time accessing services because while there are more than 30 agencies serving the Cedar Rapids metropolitan area's food security needs, many counties have just one or two services available to help those facing crises.