Wayne Community Schools Foundation announced that DuPont Pioneer donated $1,000 toward the Backpack Program, which provides a weekend of nutritious meals for the students of the Wayne area.
Last year, the Backpack Program served roughly 5,000 meals to children throughout the Wayne Community School District.
The Backpack Program provides a weekend supply of nutritious food for children, commonly for low income families, to replace the school meals that children miss during their weekend or extended breaks from school. Each weekend the food bag contains enough food for two breakfasts, two lunches, two snacks, and one can of vegetables and one can of fruit. All food is nonperishable.
Though the program is intended to help those children whose families find it difficult to have enough food for the entire month, all children are eligible for this program. Children will be able to opt in and opt out of the program. The program is run completely by volunteers who help coordinate with the school to sign children up, pack food bags weekly, and keep the program running.
Bob Liska, Pioneer product agronomist, sponsored the grant.
“Pioneer is pleased to support the Wayne Community Schools Backpack Program. This is a great way to provide food security to students across the district,” Liska said. “I’m happy to see that there are dedicated people making this a successful program, and that they have the ability to find resources to make this a worthy project.”
Jenny Hammer, co-director of the Backpack Program said, “The Wayne Community Schools Backpack Program would like to thank Pioneer for the $1,000 grant. This grant will help enable the Wayne Food Pantry to provide weekend nutrition to over 100 students in Wayne County over the course of the 2015-16 academic year.”
“On behalf of the Wayne Community Schools Foundation, I would like to thank Pioneer for their support of the Wayne Community Schools Backpack Program,” said Lindsay McLaughlin, Executive Director of the Wayne Community Schools Foundation. “Contributions such as yours helps the Backpack Program provide nutritious meals to the students of the Wayne community. We are very fortunate to have businesses such as Pioneer assisting in the support and care of our youth.”