- The number of students needing food bags has doubled, reaching 120 at Scott Elementary alone.
- Backpack Buddies and Thomas County Cares are working together to gather donations and supplies.
- Watch the video to see key food items you can donate to meet the growing demand.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Hundreds of kids in Thomasville are at risk of going hungry every weekend/
"As everybody knows, the food prices are so outrageous right now, that your EBT does not stretch like it used to," said Murphy.
I'm showing you what this nonprofit is doing to change that and how food insecurity is becoming a growing concern in our community.
"We first came with the teachers reaching out saying, the children are hungry on Monday mornings. And we decided that if we could give them food bags over the weekend, that that would help them to have food over the weekend. Because Monday through Friday, they can eat at school twice. And on the weekend, they're not getting those two, three meals a day," said Harper.
Cindy, on the board of Backpack Buddies for over a decade, says the nonprofit started to help kids who go hungry when school is out.
But the need has grown too fast.
"So they reached out to me last week saying, the numbers have doubled. And I just didn't know any other way to come up with this, 60 other bags for Scott School," said Harper.
Backpack Buddies reached out to Thomas County Cares to see how they could help meet this growing need.
"So we began collaborating on how we could put this out on social media, because this equates to 420 bags that have to be made over the next seven weeks," said Murphy.
That's 1,260 containers of food—pop-top cans, soups, granola bars, and more—needed to feed these kids over the weekends.
"We have a lot of children in several of our hotels around here, and so you've got a single parent who is working and using every penny they make to pay for hotel accommodations to keep their family together. So food can be kind of scarce at that point. And so they really do rely on these bags, you know, to help sustain the children over the weekends," said Murphy.
These bags are a lifeline.
Without them, some of these kids might not eat until they're back at school.
It affects their performance because if you're hungry, you can't think. You can't focus. And children need to be nourished, not just their mind, but their flesh, their body also," said Harper.
Some food items you can donate to help:
- 22ct Instant Grits: 38 boxes
- 20ct Instant Oatmeal: 42 boxes
- 12ct Ramen Noodles: 70 boxes
- 10ct Individual Cracker Packs: 42 boxes
- 12 Fruit Cups: 35 boxes
- 24ct Granola Bars: 35 boxes
- 32ct Juicy Juices: 16 boxes
- Combination of Pop-Top Cans, Soups, Tuna Pkgs, Vienna Sausages, etc: 1,260 cans or packages
Donations can be dropped off at the Thomas County Cares office at 518 E Clay Street or through their website.
Thomas County Cares will ensure that all donated funds go exclusively to Scott School, and will not be used for their regular outreach programs.
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