Did you know the Rotary Club of Chula Vista-Eastlake is a supporter of the Food4Kids Backpack Program? The program provides weekend food packages to chronically hungry elementary school students from low-income households who are at risk of hunger over the weekend when free school meals are unavailable. To assist the program, our club made a generous donation of $1,000 to the San Diego Food Bank, which will provide 2,000 meals for local families in need! In addition, San Diego Food Bank CEO Casey Castillo was a guest speaker at a recent meeting.
Every Friday afternoon students in the program are called out of class, often to the school nurse’s office, and discretely given a bag of food that is tucked into their backpacks. Each bag contains enough food to see the students through the weekend, and the discreet distributions remove the stigma that might be attached to the program.
School staff members identify students who display signs of chronic hunger. Warning signs include stomach aches, dizziness, difficulty concentrating, hoarding food from the cafeteria, and absenteeism. Once a child has been identified as “chronically hungry,” a referral form is sent to the Food Bank and the student’s parents are sent a permission slip to enroll the student in the program. Learn more about the Backpack Program here.
Thank you to all who support our events so that we can in turn make a difference for the organizations who do such important work in our community!