UNITED WAY'S HUNGER HURTS KIDS CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCES FUNDING FOR ALL ELIGIBLE SPRINGFIELD PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.
United Way's Hunger Hurts Kids campaign will now fund all eligible
Springfield public elementary schools. The Hunger Hurts Kids campaign
funds the backpack program maintained by Ozarks Food Harvest. Backpacks are
filled with nutritious, non-perishable, easy-to-open meals and snacks and
distributed to children to take home on weekends. The backpacks are returned to
school on Monday and prepared to be distributed again for the following weekend.
Eligible elementary schools are those which have 80 and 90 percent of its
students on federally subsidized breakfast and lunch programs. The children
participating in the backpack program are confidentially referred by school
principals, teachers and counselors.
When the Hunger Hurts Kids campaign was first launched in March of 2007
the backpack program was available in five elementary schools in Springfield.
Today the program is available in 13 public elementary schools across
Springfield. "We are by far just seeing the tip of the iceberg. We have
2007-2008 funded through United Way's Women's Initiative, Female Leaders in
Philanthropy (FLIP), many businesses and individuals. We need funding for many
years, until we solve the problem of child hunger. We must not close our eyes to
this problem. These children are our future citizens," said FLIP Chairwoman, Dr.
Nancy O'Reilly. "We need everyone to help with this problem. We all own the
problem and we all own the solution. We may not end child hunger, but we can
surely impact it with this program and one backpack at a time."