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Grand Island is a very diverse community and a number of families have children who use the schools breakfast and lunch program and if they qualify, they receive it at a reduced cost. However, many families are short of food on the weekends. So for some time the school system in conjunction with the Salvation Army have been packing food for kids in need to be taken home on Friday and used on the weekends to help insure that they receive proper nourishment.
There are 8 elementary and 2 middle schools involved in the program and each school has 10 backpacks of food each Friday for some of the neediest students. The students for this food are chosen by the Principal and the school social worker based on need, school attendance, there efforts to get an education, and several other factors so not all of the students are in the free breakfast and lunch program. The money for this program comes from a number of sources some of which are on the brochure (see attachment). The food alone is $ 400. per month. The Director of the program, Verna Haberman, said that most of the backpacks need to be replaced for the next school year and that the cost for them would be around $ 900. I asked her if Rotary purchased them if we could have a small Rotary Emblem put on them and she has had that approved. We estimate that making the emblem and gluing or sewing it on the backpacks would add another $ 200 dollars but we feel it would be a good way to get more Rotary exposure in Grand Island.
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