There are children in our community who have been going hungry through the weekend, and thanks to locals these young people are being fed through the Weekend BackPack program.

“Volunteers meet once a week to load up backpacks that children take home on Fridays,” director of the program Angel Jenkins said.

The backpacks are loaded up with healthy food for the children and given out to them at the end of the school day on Friday.

“Our food pantry will provide children with a bag of food consisting of items for two breakfasts, two lunches and or dinners, two snacks, four juice boxes and two fresh fruits whenever possible,” she said.

On Monday, the children return the backpacks to their teacher so they can be re-used the following weekend.

“The kids have been very responsible about bringing the backpacks back because they want to get food,” Jenkins said, adding teachers have also said they have seen an improvement in the behavior now that children are fed and their stomachs are full.

Jenkins said she was made aware of the hungry children from counselors and school teachers, who work in the Vicksburg Warren School District.

Currently more than 100 children have received food weekly for the past eight weeks from the community service organization.

Donations are placed in an account held by the Mississippi Partnership for Education, Training and Development, Jenkins said, which is a non-profit 501(c) 3.

The actual funding however comes from local groups, businesses, churches and individuals, Jenkins said, and the program has also received a Wal-Mart Foundation grant and Entergy has helped provide some of the backpacks.

Five schools are presently being serviced, Jenkins said, and with more donations and volunteers the backpack program can expand.

Jenkins takes care of purchasing the food and getting it to the United Way of West Central Mississippi facility where the food is packed into the back packs. She added the United Way has been very generous by offering their facility as a place to pack the back packs.

Book bags are labeled with numbers so the children’s privacy will be maintained, Jenkins said, and if one family member is at a school where the program is being offered, the volunteers make sure all the children in that family receive food.

“We don’t want any child to have to watch their sibling eat food while they are going without.”

This is National Hunger & Homelessness Awareness week, Jenkins said, and she is asking others to consider donating or volunteering to help with the Weekend BackPack program, which will aid children in Warren County.

For more information, call 601-214-6922.