Blue Devil Backpack program set to start at Myers

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The bell rings and you go racing off to lunch; you could eat an entire horse. But when you finally get your food all you get on your plate is one chicken patty and its cold! You could get more than one chicken patty, if you’re a guy, but you aren’t so you just get a cup of old peaches and dry celery; delicious!

That might seem like a major lunch issue, but for those less fortunate the issue isn’t what you like or dislike so much as how to make a meal like the ones provided at Bellwood-Antis last.

So now think of this. When you get to the end of the line you see a kid, a little younger than you, trying to buy 5 bags of chips but s/he does not have enough money in their account. Later in the day you found out that the kid was buying all those chips because their family doesn’t have the resources to put food in their home, especially on weekends and holidays.

Thanks to the Blue Devil Backpack Program select children in the elementary school will be able to get a backpack full of goodies and mostly nutritious snacks for the students to take home with them at the end of every week.

“We were contacted by Amy-Marten Shanafelt, a parent, who became aware of this program,” said Myers Elementary School Principal, Mrs. Terri Harpster. “It’s actually a national program and it’s taking place in many school districts across the nation but most closely in the Altoona Area School District and in their elementary schools.”

The program is actually a food distribution program and so the goal of the program is to get food into the homes of families that lack the resources to have enough food, and there’s a concern for weekends and holidays. Students at least get fed two meals at school, breakfast and lunch.

Almost all of the food given to the kids is purchased and shipped from the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank in Harrisburg. In fact, the Blue Devil Backpack Program will be operated from the Hope Center in Bellwood. But the food that the food bank doesn’t give, the elementary school will have a food bank to provide the students with that food.

Mrs. Heckman will be the point person at Myers and will also be working with Amy-Marten Shanafelt and Jendy Maines. The funding source will be through donations and grants.

Chris McCartney, President of the Bellwood-Antis Youth Football League, pledged to donate all profits from the gate for this Saturday’s game to the Blue Devil Backpack Program.

All the students that will be given the backpacks will remain confidential, and the teachers are asked to refer any students that they feel aren’t getting enough food to Mrs. Heckman. The teachers are also asked to make sure the bags are put into the hands of the students at the end of each week.

So far they have a list of about 25 students that have been referred to the program. Mrs. Harpster and Mrs. Heckman would like their students to be involved so they have created an application for 4th grade students, with parent permission, to be volunteer packers.

They will then be assigned to a team with other volunteers and will once a week, pack the bags and prepare them for the students to go home at the end of the week. They don’t know who exactly they are packing the bags for they just know that they need help.

The BluePrint wishes this program and everyone involved at Myers good luck!