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In Idaho, one in six people is food insecure, meaning they have no access to regular, safe and reliable sources of meals. Idaho's children face greater needs: one in five is regularly hungry. While many families are chronically poor, sudden plunges into economic disaster can occur within any household, whether due to illness or death of a primary wage earner, catastrophic event, or loss of a job. When faced with choosing whether to pay for rent, heat, electricity, and food, food loses.
To illustrate the pervasiveness of the local problem, In Bannock County 51% of households have incomes below 130% of poverty level, qualifying them for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program/food stamps) free school lunch, WIC and more. An additional 21% of households fall between 130% and 185% of poverty level, qualifying them for WIC and reduced price school lunches.
Hunger in children is physically and psychologically painful and if not alleviated, will have long term negative effects both to the child and to society. It eventually results in malnutrition, which affects overall health and normal growth. Hungry children are more often ill and miss school more often than non-hungry children. Going to school with growling stomachs adversely affects their ability to concentrate and to learn—often affecting the dynamics of a classroom and the learning of other children.
Our schools systems use local and federal resources to provide supplemental sources of nutrition: school breakfasts and lunches. More than half of our schoolchildren come from homes with incomes qualifying them for free school lunch. They can count on assistance five days a week. Weekends are another story. Many local teachers can recount stories of children arriving at school Monday mornings ravenously hungry.
To address this, the Idaho Foodbank initiated the Backpack Program which is this: Teachers in the school district identify children who are not being adequately fed on weekends and the numbers are reported to the school districts and sent to the Idaho Foodbank. The Idaho Foodbank, with the help of donors, purchases nutritious food, packages it into "backpack" bags which are distributed to the schools and the children on Friday afternoons. The foods are especially selected to require no preparation, be lightweight enough for a small child to carry, and to provide six healthy meals for a child of that age. It is important to note that this program relies almost exclusively on community volunteers to assemble the backpacks. The Pocatello Rotary Club regularly supports this effort convening one evening per month for two hours to help the Idaho Foodbank in their repacking efforts.
According to Rebecca Ristrem, branch manager of the Southeastern Idaho Branch of the Idaho Foodbank, SE Idaho will have distributed 17,500 backpacks to 500 children in the 2014-15 school year. Each backpack fill costs $6.75, and for one child for a school year, costs $270. In addition to meeting the Foodbank's regular needs, which is raising money for, storing and distributing food to pantries all over SE Idaho, the Idaho Foodbank is in great need of funding for the Backpack Program.
The Rotary Club of Pocatello proposes to assist the Idaho Foodbank's Backpack Program by donating a total of $6,500 in 2015. Of this, 25%, or $1625.00 will be given by the Club and one of its members. (The Board of Directors has approved a $550 donation from Club funds, and one of its members has pledged $1,075 from personal funds.) We respectfully request $4875.00 (75% of the $6,500) from District funds. At the current rates, the total grant of $6,500 will fill backpacks for 24 chronically hungry school children for the 2015-16 school year.
The funds will be delivered directly to the Idaho Foodbank in one lump sum and earmarked specifically for the 2015-16 school year's backpacks. Our Club will remain involved by continuing to volunteer to fill backpacks once a month.
We believe that this proposal is consistent within the mission of The Rotary Foundation, which is to "enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty."
By supporting the Idaho Foodbank's backpack program, The Rotary Foundation and the Pocatello Rotary Club would provide supplemental nutrition to poor school children, thereby improving health, supporting education, and offsetting the affects of poverty in southeast Idaho.
Thank you for your consideration of this request.
Addendum to Project Description (added after the project was signed)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcNau9Tdjk4 This is the link to a video produced by the Rotary Club of Pocatello showing members working at the Idaho Foodbank.
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