McKinley Elementary students ‘Feed the Monster’
For three years, McKinley Center Elementary sixth grade students have engaged in a service project which collects donations for local organizations such as Operation Bootstrap and the Salvation Army of Portage County. This year, however, students and staff noticed a growing need in their own school community, families experiencing food hardships.
To help ease the hardships of their peers, students launched the “Feed the Monster” campaign and collected non-perishable food items. Each Friday, participating students receive a backpack filled with healthy food and snacks for them to take home and eat over the weekend. Each backpack contains enough food for two light breakfasts, two lunches and two dinners as well as a number of snacks for the children over the weekend. Students then return the empty backpack to school the next week so that it can be re-stocked and sent home again.
“We’ve had wonderful support from our school family. The students’ ‘Feed the Monster’ campaign brought in enough donations for us to begin the program and we’ve seen donations begin to come in from the community as well,” said Jill Schraufnagel, a teacher at McKinley.
“The need is real. We forget sometimes that it isn’t an anonymous person or family who may be struggling, but someone sitting right next to you. The students really were eager to be able to make this happen for our school,” she said.
McKinley staff will continue the food backpack program throughout the year. Monetary donations can be sent to McKinley Center Elementary, 2926 Blaine St., Stevens Point, WI 54481. (Contributed photo)