Sophie Gray

Local Journalism Initiative

The backpack program helping local elementary school students in need is adapting to the times and the community is already helping increase their food supply for local children.

The program, which normally supplies backpacks full of nutritious food for nine children at Osoyoos Elementary School each Friday afternoon, has added weekdays to their service. 

Program organizer Marieze Tarr realized that those nine children who usually receive backpacks for the weekend are now missing out on school-supplied breakfasts and lunches during the week. This meant more food was needed, so Tarr posted to Facebook to ask for help.

“I knew that they were going to need more food than we were providing them for just the weekend,” said Tarr. “So that was why I put a call out to the community.”

Tarr said the response has been “absolutely wonderful,” since she posted a call for donations to Facebook on Monday. She has received donations of food, gift cards and money to help supply these young children with the nutritious food they need.

She said this is even more needed at the moment because the Rotary Club has been forced to cancel major events that would normally help fund a program like this.

“I knew that the Rotary Club was going to miss out on two of their big fundraisers,” said Tarr, referring to the golf tournament held in July each year and this weekend’s Easter breakfast, both of which have been cancelled. “I was just being mindful of all of those things and trying to be proactive.”

The backpacks contain easy to prepare items like eggs, pasta and pasta sauce, fruit and canned soups. Students normally take the backpacks full of food home on Friday afternoons and return them empty on Monday morning. The anonymous program uses backpacks that look just like the backpacks of children who use the program “so other kids don’t make fun of them,” said Tarr. But now they receive boxes or paper bags full of items instead.

Tarr also noted that normally the program ends when school lets out for the summer, but due to increasingly difficult times for many families, she and the Rotary Club are exploring options for continuing it through the summer months as well. 

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