Backpacks Full of Food

More than 300,000 Minnesotan children live with food insecurity. Every Meal is an organization stepping in to change that by sending kids home on the weekends with bags of food.

Once a week, Woodland volunteers, including individuals, couples and families work with Every Meal at Frost Lake Elementary and Eastern Heights Elementary to load up backpacks with foods for families who have signed up.

Rachel, who coordinates these volunteers, says, “It is eye-opening to realize how many kids sign up for this program and that Every Meal is constantly looking for more churches and other organizations to sponsor schools. This group of Woodland volunteers has been able to connect to one another through this volunteering opportunity as a Jesus-looking community.”

Di and Fred are retirees who volunteer each week. Di says, “It is a real joy to hear the sound of a child’s laughter while in the schools. Lockers keep changing, the amount of food we handle each week changes, and the lists that are created for us to use sometimes have us running from one end to the other to figure out where the next locker should be. But we will continue to do this as long as there is a need and we can lift the backpacks.”

Volunteers have also invested in staff and students outside of packing food. Last year, the group collected fishing gear to help supply a new after-school fishing club. A volunteer arrived to drop off the gear at the same time the fishing club was starting and heard lots of cries of “I got me a fishin’ pole!” and, “I’m going to catch a big one!”

As Rachel says, “Jesus was always feeding people and so this is a very tangible, literal way that we can serve and love our community that also looks a lot like what Jesus would do.”

If you’re interested in joining this missional community to serve with Every Meal, contact Kevin at kcallaghan@whchurch.org.