By Staff
The Back Pack Pals program, which started Oct. 8 at Bath Elementary School, has received great feedback and support from churches and volunteers in the Bath school district.
Pamela Hodges, Bath Elementary School’s principal, said pastors at Bath United Methodist and St. Thomas Episcopal churches are supporting the program by having their congregations provide canned goods to some students so they will have snacks during weekends.
“We’ve been really fortunate to be a part of this program,” said Kelli Sorg, pastor at Bath United Methodist Church. “We started it to be a part of the community and help the children.”
Sorg said a similar program in Pitt County has proven successful, so she wanted to incorporate it into Beaufort County. After talking about the program with Don Phipps, Beaufort County Schools’ superintendent, he gave the OK for the program to proceed, Sorg said. So far, the local program is a success, she said.
“It has been good for the parents and good for the kids,” she said.
Sorg and other volunteers from Bath United Methodist Church said they enjoy knowing that they are making a difference in other peoples’ lives.
The Back Pack Pals program provides certain students with backpacks filled with easy to prepare foods and snacks for use during weekends.
Volunteers supply the backpacks and food items as a way to help support the school, either by purchasing the products themselves or by donating money for the pastors to buy the goods.
“During the process of a week, the churches will get together and get the packs ready for the kids, with all kinds of snacks and goodies for them,” Hodges said. “Because a lot of the parents work on the weekends, what it does is it takes a little bit of the burden off of the parents over the weekend to help them with meals and snacks for the kids.
“It’s really been a lot of fun and rewarding because it helps so many.”
Hodges said the school’s greatest resource is its school-bus drivers.
“They really are the eyes and ears of the children,” she said. “They see and talk to them from the time they leave the school, to the time they drop them off at home. They are a huge piece of the puzzle to get the packs to the kids, discreetly.”
She said the letters the school receives in appreciation of the packs are a tremendous pat on the back. The appreciative letters come front students, their parents and their grandparents.
The backpacks contain items such as pancake mix, pancake syrup, macaroni and cheese, drink mixes, cereal, pudding and oatmeal.
“It’s a program that is helping in these tough economic times,” Sorg said. “And everyone can use a little help.”
Sarah Hodges, public information officer for Beaufort County Schools, said the program is working well. She hopes it will continue during the next semester.
According to Hodges, people in the Washington school district have started to replicate the program.
Pamela Hodges said discretion regarding students who receive the backpacks is an important part of the program. Without that discretion, the program could not exist, she said.
“We need to maintain discretion at all costs,” she said. “That is something that every school doing the project will employ.”