The Kettering Backpack Program operates on the idea that it’s easier for children to concentrate, grow and succeed when they’ve had enough to eat.
There is enough in the pantry today to feed the 475 children enrolled in the Kettering Backpack Program for a month. The schools feed them Monday through Friday, and the kids get “kid-friendly” food packs at the end of the school week. The pantry is located at the church building, 3440 Shroyer Road.
This way, the children get fed during the weekend, Jacque Fisher, the program’s executive director, told News Center 7’s Kate Bartley,
“Some of these children don’t get fed on the weekends,” Fisher said.
The idea for the program was born in Fisher’s Kettering Leadership Academy class.
“We did it with 15 kids in the living room of my home and now it has grown to this,” Fisher said.
Fisher and Egloff said 41 percent of the children in Kettering receive free or reduced lunch, and that’s up 10 percent from six years ago.
“We are all volunteers,” Fisher said, and all the food is paid for by private contributors and some companies.
Egloff and Fisher hope that Christ Church someday that even more hungry children can be fed through the program. For more about it, visit ketteringbackpack.org at whiotv.com.