By Meg Peters
Review Co-Editor
Ten-thousand dollars goes a long way for Blessings in a Backpack-Lake Orion.
It means that 100 at-risk students will be provided with a backpack of food every weekend for the entire school year.
The AT&T Foundation presented Blessings in a Backpack with a $10,000 check at Blanche Sims Elementary Oct. 30. Each year AT&T donates millions of dollars to at-risk students and programs through their Aspire program.
‘This is everything to us because it really helps take the pressure off,? Co-Chair Kellie McDonald said.
McDonald, Steering Committee member Jillian Nolan, State Representative Brad Jacobsen and Blanche Sims Principal Jennifer Goethals kindly accepted the check from AT&T Director of External Affairs Lori Doughty last week.
While the donation is a sigh of relief, Blessings in a Backpack still must raise the funding to provide around 250 more students with their weekly six meals every Friday to get them through the weekend.
It takes $100 to provide one child with a backpack of meals each weekend for the entire school year.
There are currently about 1,500 students utilizing the free/reduced lunch program within the district who are qualified for the Blessings in a Backpack program, which is open to any at-risk student within the seven Lake Orion elementary schools or three middle schools.
‘Our need is growing,? Nolan said. ‘We’re also going to start addressing or looking at the needs of the high school and the preschool through the Headstart program Lake Orion schools runs.?
The program was up and running in the spring of 2013, first for just for Blanche Sims Elementary and Pine Tree Elementary students. Over the course of two years the program expanded to include kindergarten through eighth grade students.
McDonald said she is seeing more middle school students using the program then ever before.
‘Middle school students have already had the program a few years in their elementary school, so they’re used to it. We want to be careful that there isn’t any shame attached to it, and so discretion is key. But yes, we’re really seeing that change, the growth and the need staying with the middle schoolers.?
Save the date for the annual Trivia Night fundraiser on January 23, 2016 and the annual Penny Wars at LO schools in February.