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.”

Wayne Community Schools was awarded a $10,000 grant from America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education,

sponsored by the Monsanto Fund.

The district will use the money to purchase Chromebooks and a mobile cart for the computers.

Seventh- through ninth-grade students will use the Chromebooks to increase the number of science research projects conducted and showcased at the Wayne Junior High Science Fair in the spring. Teachers will encourage students to choose agriculture-based topics, with an overarching goal of using the new Chromebooks to increase agricultural literacy among students.

“The students of Wayne Community Schools have a history of excellence in science research,” said Lee Brogie, science teacher at the school. “This project will greatly enhance our program by giving students the technology needed to boost awareness of the current challenges facing agriculture.”

Representatives from the school, the school’s foundation and the Monsanto Fund attended a check presentation to celebrate the grant during the homecoming football game on Sept. 4.

“Thank you to the farmers who believe in our students,” Brogie said. “Because of this grant, our students will use their intellect and their passions to propose solutions that will positively impact the agriculture industry.”

This year the school district also received an educational starter kit from Monsanto Company to help establish a pollinator garden, which will give students first-hand knowledge of the critical role habitat plays in providing bees and butterflies with food, shelter and places to lay eggs.