By Matt Pedigo, The Citizen-Times
If you want to give to a charitable cause, and in doing so, want to choose one that will immediately help the Allen County children who need it most, the Allen County Schools Family Resource Centers’ “backpack” and other support programs may be what you’re looking for.
And summer’s a good time to donate, to help stock the programs up for the start of the 2015-2016 school year this August. It’s also a good time to call and refer children who may be in need of help when school resumes.
Though headquartered in the Allen County Intermediate Center, Family Resource Centers (FRCs) are also in the Allen County Primary Center, James E. Bazzell Middle School and Allen County-Scottsville High School. FRC was created in the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) in the 1990s. The goal was to help alleviate outside problems that are keeping students from focusing on their education. These include basic needs such as food and clothing not being met by their parents or guardians, for various reasons that range from substance abuse and simple neglect to legitimate poverty and hardships.
“How can a kid focus on a test when they don’t know where they’re going to sleep that night?” FRC Program Assistant Hogue said. “We’ve got five families right now who are homeless.”
The Backpacks
Through referrals and other means of identification, the FRCs identify students who are not getting enough to eat outside of school. For examples, teachers may report students who are repeatedly asking for snacks, and/or seem unable to stay awake in class, or cafeteria staff may notice students who are particularly hungry on Monday mornings. In other cases, parents ask for assistance during hardships.
“And when things get better, some parents will call in and say they don’t need the assistance anymore,” Hogue noted.
For the program, FRC staff members pack reusable backpacks with canned, pre-packaged and non-perishable foods for students to eat at home over the weekend. The students get the packs on Friday afternoon, and bring the packs back Monday morning for a refill. As April Hogue noted, the recipients’ situations are varied; some have parents or guardians who will cook for them but need food, while others have neither, and need items the child can easily prepare and eat.
Thus, items are sorted accordingly in the backpacks. In the recently-concluded 2014-2015 school year, that program served 150 students—and not all cases involve neglectful parents. Hogue said that FRC personnel often receive “thank you” notes from parents or guardians in the returning backpacks. Many are legitimately doing the best they can in hard times; Hogue noted one working single mother of two who was very grateful for the help.
“The kids shouldn’t have to suffer, no matter what,” Hogue said. “It’s not their fault.”
The FRC is always accepting food donations to fill the packs. One civic group, the Concerned Citizens of Allen County, made a large food donation last winter. The J.M. Smucker plant has donated Uncrustables and the Bowling Green Realtors Association has recently donated a substantial amount of food. Backpacks themselves are also needed, as they wear out over time.
Monetary donations are needed as well to help feed students at school. Through the US Department of Agriculture’s Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) program, breakfasts and lunches are now free to all students at every local school except Allen County-Scottsville High School. However, many students who did not eat, adequately or at all, overnight or over the weekend come into school very hungry, and want seconds. These have to be paid for, and the students often don’t have the money.
The FRC has a special fund at each school for this purpose, Hogue noted. For the last school year, $6,600 was spent for this purpose. The FRC also purchased another $2,410 worth of food and snacks for students during the school day.
During the summer, FRC coordinators Rhonda Kircher and Lindsay Ross visit summer Feeding program sites to check on some of the students, and provide them with food for home if needed.
The Closet
Clothing, and personal hygiene items such as combs, toothbrushes and toothpaste and baby wipes are needed, as are school supplies for students whose families either cannot afford or are not providing them. (The FRC provided almost $12,000 in school supplies over the last school year).
Tennis shoes and underwear of all boys and girls sizes, 3T to adult, are badly needed, Hogue said. Many students come to school without underwear, or wearing flip-flops in winter, as they have no shoes.
“We go though those like crazy,” she said. “Some kids also come in and aren’t wearing socks. We need those, too.”
In all, the overall FRC program spent $14,113 in he last school year to provide clothing. Through sponsorships and donations, FRC was even able to provide tuxedos and dresses for about eight AC-S students who would otherwise have had to miss their proms due to money shortages.
Many different types of donations are accepted—even furniture. This has been used to help families whose homes have burned, Hogue noted.
The FRCs at ACPC and ACIC seem to serve more students than JEBMS or AC-S, Hogue noted, adding that this isn’t necessarily because older students are better off.
“As they get older, sometimes they’re embarrassed to ask for it,” she said.
District Curriculum Supervisor Chad Cooper, who oversees the FRC program, noted in the Allen County Board of Education’s May 18 meeting that ACPC students had utilized FRC services in one form or another 1,519 times in the 2014-2015 school year. ACIC students utilized FRC 870 time over the year, while JEBMS students used it 500 times. AC-S students utilized some form of FRC service 529 times. District-wide, FRCs average more than 3,000 uses per year.
“The majority of our kids come in contact with FRC at some time,” Cooper said.
To donate or learn more, call (270) 618-8202.