News - Local/State

Saturday, Oct. 04, 2008

Rock Hill schools' drive to provide food for students

Dozens of volunteers on Friday turned an empty classroom at Rock Hill schools’ Flexible Learning Center into a mini food packing factory.

The assembly line started outside the building, where people unloaded donations of juice, crackers, granola bars, pudding and other goodies intended to feed hundreds of malnourished Rock Hill children.

Volunteers dragged the loads to the classroom where others packed one-gallon, plastic bags full of the edibles. Each bag had a similar destination: a hungry kid’s backpack.

“This is awesome,” said Carla Gregory, a 28-year-old nursing student who stopped by to help fill bags. “This really hits close to home. I had friends growing up who never had food at home … they would come to my house to eat.”

The effort marked the start of the district’s Back the Pack food drive and fundraiser. School officials have identified at least 1,117 students they believe leave school on Fridays and don’t eat another full meal until they return the following Monday.

School officials asked the community for help. And they got it.

Even before the kickoff on Friday afternoon, the district had already received about $10,000.

That’s not counting the boxes of snacks and juice stacked nearly ceiling-high. And the donations kept coming.

“It’ll take us a while to get a grasp of what’s here,” said Rock Hill schools Superintendent Lynn Moody.

The plan is to each Friday send hungry kids home for the weekend with a backpack full of food. Teachers will try to be discreet. Some will visit classes and fill backpacks while kids are at lunch or recess. At other schools, students will be called out of class to receive food.

Elementary students will get the first wave of donations. As the program continues, it will include middle and high schoolers. Moody hopes to make it permanent.

When the drive was first announced last week, school officials aimed to feed about 380 kids. As word got around, teachers named more elementary schoolers they believe are undernourished. There are around 460 so far.

By 4:30 p.m. Friday, the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd that crammed the makeshift factory began to dissipate. A few stragglers remained, admiring the mountain of munchies now neatly packed and ready to be dished out.

“We filled more than 600 bags,” someone said. “That’s enough for a week-and-a-half.”

Shawn Cetrone • 329-4072