Photos courtesy of Holly King

Haley King (left) and Jordan Price fill backpacks at Jordan's Chapel United Methodist Church. Each pack, which will go to a student who needs it, contains two breakfasts, two lunches, three dinners and three snacks.

| Mary Hardbarger

mary.hardbarger@roanoke.com, 381-1679

PULASKI -- On Monday mornings, some schoolchildren gather in the hallways and by lockers.

And some head straight to the cafeteria to scarf down a good, hearty breakfast.

While many children are just looking to fill that morning hunger, Holly King expressed concern that some of them are looking to fill more than that.

"I know some kids aren't eating much, if anything, on the weekends," said King, president of the United Methodist Women's group in Pulaski.

"And it's not because they don't want to -- they don't have access to it."

King and other members of the United Methodist Church women's group wanted to change those eating patterns, ensuring that every child would receive proper nutrition on the weekends, when a lunch wasn't guaranteed.

In early September, the group launched a backpack program with Critzer Elementary School.

Every week, a backpack is provided to children in need filled with food for the weekend.

Each pack includes two breakfasts, two lunches, three dinners and three snacks.

All food is shelf-stable and kid-friendly and must follow certain nutritional guidelines.

Critzer was chosen because of the number of children in need there and the connection the church had with it, King said.

The school currently has the county's highest rate of children receiving free lunches.

The program is funded by the Appalachian Hunger and Poverty grant the group received earlier this year in the amount of $1,500. It costs about $6 to fill each backpack.

"Many of the items are bought at the Second Harvest Food Bank in Roanoke," King said. "They don't always have what we need, so we have to buy items at full price at the grocery store."

King said she is very aware that if more support for the program doesn't start pouring in, it probably won't make it through the winter.

Although the group is applying for two additional grants, King would like to see more donations from the community.

On Sept. 3, the first week of the program, 25 backpacks were filled. Last week, King and her volunteers would pack 72.

Volunteers gather at Jordan's Chapel United Methodist Church on Thursday nights to fill the packs, which are then distributed to the children on Friday afternoons.

Volunteers are not informed who the backpacks are for, and instead they label each with initials of the children.

To address the needs of the all the children in the family, the program is open to other school-age children in the household regardless of grade level. Additional backpacks are picked up at Critzer.

"Community issues are often overlooked because of things going on in other parts of the world," she said.

"There are a lot of things here that need to be addressed, and it feels so good to be helping in my own community."