Central Elementary counselor Amber Nea knew a change was needed when she had to tell a student she had no red backpack to send home. Nea has teamed with Starla Pulley and Amy James to create Backpacks for Feeding Fridays or BFFs.
Nea said a student had moved to the district from out of state in 2016 and was struggling in a number of ways at school. Gradually he become more comfortable with the staff and asked specifically for a red backpack. Nea explained the program existed at his previous school and he knew his family could benefit from it. Nea said they knew the program was active in several other county schools but Dexter had yet to implement it. Some in the Dexter community were already supporting those programs.
“When a student is able to articulate their own needs,” said Nea. “It spurred a lot of conversation in our district amongst our administration, our school counselors and our community members.”
Sadly Nea had to tell him no. After talking to him further Nea knew the family needed help. Central Elementary took up an emergency love offering to help the family.
A committee was put together to discuss the community and what its needs are.
“Through those discussions we determined that this is definitely a program we wanted to investigate further,” said Nea, “to see the cost, how many we could provide and what our needs were in our school district.”
“I don’t think the committee realized that hunger was an issue in our community,” added James. “We discussed the dynamics and maybe the dynamics have evolved and how it (hunger) is becoming a bigger issue.”
Approval was sought from the school board to begin the program in Dexter. The school board was on board. The BFF program was born at Dexter with Nea coordinating at Central Elementary, Pulley at Southwest Elementary and James in the district office.
The program allows a student to take home a red backpack filled with food on Fridays to ensure they will have enough food until they return to school on Monday. Currently about 40 families in the Dexter school system are in the program.
James said they knew they wanted to address the issue and didn’t want students to feel hungry on the weekends.
The program is completely funded by private donors and the school pays nothing into it. James said the cost is $300 per backpack to feed a student for the entire school year. She went on to say that some additional food supplies were available last year and they were able to feed some students through the summer months.
Nea stated all donations are appreciated, whether it is a one-time donation of $10 or a business, church or individual wishing to make an annual donation. At this time only monetary donations are excepted. The school is partnered with the Missouri Food Bank and the food is delivered for the program once a month.
A backpack can sometimes be sent home on extended breaks such as the upcoming Christmas break. If there are enough food supplies a backpack can be sent home. However, it is the family’s responsibility to bring the backpack back to the school to be refilled for the second weekend.
The food delivered to the school is packaged as menu A, B or C. This allows the school to send home a better variety of items so the student is not getting the same items each time. The menus consist of nonperishable canned or boxed foods.
The cadet teachers from the high school pack the backpacks at Central and Southwest. Nea said they take the job very seriously and understand the importance. It should also be noted that the cadet teachers do not know the names of the students receiving the backpacks. The names are only known to the school and the student is not sent home with a student without the parents’ approval.
James, Nea and Pulley all noted that the students with the backpacks are not looked down on by their classmates. Their classmates understand what the backpacks are and that they are a good thing for those students.
Nea provided an example of this, saying recently a student ran into her office on a Friday afternoon holding one of the red backpacks. She stated the student was in a panic thinking a classmate had forgotten their backpack and would not have enough food for the weekend.
Nea assured the student that she would take care of it. As it turned out, the student in question was absent from school that day and Nea was able to get the backpack to the student upon their return on Monday.
Nea and Pulley also try to coordinate so one backpack is sent home per family. This is done in the event there is one sibling at one school and a sibling at another. This ensures all the families in the program get a backpack.
A middle school or high school student can get aide as well. The program is set for kindergarten through fifth grade but a middle school and high school can get help as well.
Anyone wishing to make a donation should earmark it for the BFF program and send it to Amy James at the Dexter Schools Administration office on Brown Pilot Lane. If it is earmarked for the BFF program it will go to that program and that program only.