The Benevolent Order of the Elks donated $1,000 in supplies to area schools on Dec. 9 at the Central Office.
Schools receiving donations include Hawthorne, Oak Heights, Holley and Crawfordsville elementary schools.
The Sweet Home Lodge received a 50-50 matching Promise Grant of $500 from the Elks organization for use in the community. The Elks decided to look at what needs the schools had.
Loyal Knight Jason Jennings’ wife, Leslie Jennings, is a teacher at Hawthorne School. She took a proposal to Principal Ryan Beck.
“They came back to us with a wish list of items needed for kids,” Jennings said. Items ranged from pencils and rulers to glue and paper.
Elk Al Bashaw took that list to Wal-Mart to fill the order, Jennings said. Wal-Mart provided a discount for the items.
At that point, the Elks had spent only half of the grant, Jennings said, so the Elks asked the district what else was needed. The answer was shoes and backpacks.
The backpacks are used in a program called Kids Food Pak.
Jennings’ parents, Dave and Nancy Jennings, started the program at Hawthorne. Within the program, children take home a backpack filled with simple foods for the weekend.
The program currently feeds six children, from first through sixth grade, said Terry Augustadt, counselor at Hawthorne. It costs $15 per week to fill each pack with “kid-friendly foods they can prepare on their own.”
The packs are returned to school on Monday.
The Jenningses had heard of this program elsewhere and wanted to start one here in Sweet Home, Dave Jennings said. They got a group of friends together to sponsor backpacks and get it going. Now they would like to expand it and help more children each week.
“It’s going to kids on free lunch and breakfast,” he said. “These kids don’t have anything when they go home for the weekend.”
They often come back to school hungry on Monday, he said. They’re fed at school during the week, but when they go home, there’s nothing to eat.
For more information, contact Dave Jennings at (541) 954-6386 or [email protected].
The school hopes to add 55 more backpacks, Augustadt said. “If people out there can help, that would be great.”
“A huge thanks to the Elks Lodge,” Beck said. The supplies and the backpacks fill a huge need.
“The shoes will be a big help,” Beck said. “We probably get five or six students a week that come in shoes that are falling apart.”
The shoes are frequently separating, and children just put more socks on trying to keep their feet warm, he said. “Two students didn’t come to school last week because they didn’t have any shoes, and it was too cold. They’ll have shoes now.”