West Concord backpack program a success

With school back in session West Concord’s summer backpack program has been declared a success.

The program provided food for those in West Concord who relied on free and reduced lunches during the school and may have received food on Fridays during the school year to get them through the weekend.

The program was the idea of Shannon Lisowski and Lisa Westlund but the entire community became involved, Lisowski said.

“It went really well,” she said. “There are a lot of generous people in West Concord. The donations were phenomenal.”

It wasn’t a steady need, Lisowski said, as some weeks the youngsters were with the other parent or staying with grandparents. Still, they served five to seven families regularly, she said. 

There was interest from a few more families, she said, but verification proved difficult because school was on summer vacation making it harder to check, especially if a family moved from another district. Participation was limited to families eligible for the free or reduced lunch.

The idea for the summer program, she said, came from the realization that for many of the students who relied on a weekend backpack program during the school year there would be a long summer of not having enough food.

Backpack programs have increasingly become a way for church and community groups to help meet the nutritional needs of students on weekends.

Triton is one of those districts