Summer backpack program organizing in West Concord

With the end of the school year students can look forward to enjoying the days away from the classroom.
But for some youngsters that also means days lacking in nutritious food as they relied on breakfast and lunch served in school.
To help meet that need for students eligible for free or reduced lunches during the school year, West Concord residents Shannon Lisowski and Lisa Westlund are coordinating a “backpack” program for the summer months.
Backpack programs have increasingly become a way that churches and community groups have been helping to meet the nutritional needs of students on weekends. Backpacks containing food items that youngsters can prepare themselves are sent home with the students after school on Fridays.
Organizers of the West Concord program hope to give students a backpack of food once a week for the duration of summer vacation, Lisowski and Westlund said. If all goes well, they said, the food backpacks will be ready to go next week.
They expect there are at least 10 to 15 families in the community that would benefit from the program, Lisowski said.
The plan is for families to sign-up for the program and stop in at city hall to pick up the backpacks. Details were still being worked out but the pick-up date would likely be either Tuesday or Thursday, Lisowski said.
There will be no lengthy applications to fill out, she added.
The food supplied will not replace the meals the youngsters received in school, Lisowski said, but will provide easy to prepare food that will give each youngster  the equivalent of one meal a day for a week.
But to make the program work, Lisowski and Westlund said, community help is needed through donations of food items and money.
A financial donation has been obtained from a program of Thrivent Financial in Kasson and monetary donations can be made through Trinity Lutheran Church in West Concord.
Donations of food can be dropped off at the West Concord Public Library, 180 Main St.
They are looking for individual packages of raisins, cereal bars, granola bars, pretzel and popcorn, Westlund said.
Other items needed are bread, peanut butter, jelly, crackers, canned meat such as tuna and chicken, canned soup or items such as Spaghetti O’s or ravioli, single serve or boxes of macaroni and cheese, oatmeal packets, bags or boxes of cereal, juice boxes, shelf stable milk, canned vegetables and fruit packaged in juice.
They also will accept fresh fruit such as apples and oranges that will last but not quickly ripened fruit like banannas, Westlund said.
Also needed, she said, are backpacks in good condition.
For more information email backpackwc@gmail.com or call Lisa Westlund at 612-816-7463 or Shannon Lisowski at 507-696-5428.