Blessings in a Backpack in Green, Ohio, Helps Families This Holiday Season
Story by By Eric Poston, akron.com.
The Blessings in a Backpack program in the Green Local Schools District helped provide 70 families with a Thanksgiving meal and supplemental bags of food this year in Green, Ohio.
Program coordinator Jennifer Doerrer said the program is in its 14th year and continues to grow to feed families in need. She said several businesses and organizations stepped up to help with the Thanksgiving food packing by providing donations and food. Those included Buehler’s, Gardner Pie Co., Dairy Farmers of America, local Girl Scout troops, RFD Services and Serra Auto Park. Also, an anonymous donor paid for all 70 hams for the families. The Green Chamber of Commerce also donated a large sum to help fund the Thanksgiving bags.
Doerrer said monthly volunteers, along with volunteers from the Green Schools Foundation, City of Green employees, Green City Council members and members of the Green Chamber of Commerce, also helped.
Doerrer said the program currently feeds a little more than 150 children in the district each weekend of the school year. Partner schools include Green Primary, Green Middle School, Green Intermediate School, and Green High School.
Next year, the program will be on the move as the pantry in Green Intermediate School will relocate as the school is expected to be demolished as a part of the district’s buildings projects. Doerrer sad the pantry is pretty full from donations and recent food drives in the schools.