CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Kanawha Valley charity will soon kick off its sixth year of providing students with food during the annual summer vacation.
The Backpack Buddies program began in 2012 with three Putnam County Schools. The effort has since grown to Putnam and Boone counties, as well as Cross Lanes. More than 1,400 kids benefit from the program.
“One of the things that we faced early on was how do we get the food to the kids,” program leader Doug Erwin said. “We wanted to make sure the food got into the hands of the kids. And we figured the best way we could do it is mail it to them.”
Erwin said the state’s rural and mountainous landscape makes it difficult to transport boxes on a bi-weekly basis, compared to the mail system which can handle the boxes.
“We put in — depending on the size of the family — typically a couple cans of ravioli, some fruit, some vegetables, some soup, some canned meat and always the kids’ favorite, ramen noodles,” he said. “It’s to supplement. To give them a little extra during the week.”
Erwin said it does take a team to pack the boxes, which is why the organization hosts three community packing days. The first one is June 2 at the Teays Valley Nazarene Church at 10 a.m., in which Erwin said 2,000 boxes will be packed in a two-hour span.
“Four times during the summer, we’ll come back together and we’ll put labels on them and the post office will come and get them,” he said.
The second packing day will be June 3 at the Cross Lanes United Methodist Church at 1 p.m., and the third event will be June 9 at the Madison Civic Center at 10 a.m.
Erwin said they work closely with school systems to learn of children in need of food. While the sign-up period is concluding, he said interested people should reach out to their local school’s guidance counselors.
“If there’s other communities that would like to chat about the program, we’d be more than happy to share the program and maybe we can start a new chapter there in another community next year,” he said.