Citizen of the Year brings backpack food program to local elementary schools

Published 12:48 pm Saturday, November 21, 2009

By Daniel Nash

The Courier-Herald

On Nov 13, Liberty Ridge Elementary School received 25 backpacks packed with enough food to last the weekend.

Each backpack contained six meals and two snacks, comprised of items like oatmeal, breakfast bars, milk, juice, Easy Mac, chili and beef jerky.

The backpacks are part of a new program operated by Bonney Lake Community Resources, a nongovernment organization run by Stew Bowen.

The program is intended to benefit students on the free- or reduced-lunch program, and of those, backpacks of food go to those students with the greatest need for good nutrition over the weekend.

Bowen won Bonney Lake’s 2008 Citizen of the Year award for his work with two local food banks, the Bonney Lake Food Bank and Bread of Life, Bonney Lake.

Bowen proposed the program to the Community Resources Board after returning from Washington Food Coalition Conference in Wenatchee. Several other attendees spoke about their success with similar programs, leading Bowen to believe it could be successful in Bonney Lake, he said.

“I’ve heard of similar programs before, but I’ve never gotten the details,” Bowen said. “This time I heard about them in detail and for whatever reason it grabbed my heart.”

Bonney Lake has 51 percent of its students on free or reduced lunch programs making it a viable area for the backpack program, Bowen said.

The program has begun on a small scale with Liberty Ridge.

To preserve a buffer of anonymity, neither Bowen or any other Community Resources member receives the names of students receiving the backpacks. Bowen contacted guidance counselors at Liberty Ridge who identified the students most likely to benefit from a weekend food program and in turn contacted those students’ families.

Bowen delivers the backpacks on Friday and students are expected to pick them up from the office. The backpacks must be returned by the following Wednesday morning so they can be picked up by Bowen. They are refilled on Thursday and the cycle begins again for the following Friday and weekend.

If the backpack is not returned by a student by Wednesday, they will not receive food for the following weekend or subsequent weekends, until the backpack is returned.

“Part of what we want to do is to teach these kids accountability,” Bowen said. “So if they don’t return with a backpack, they won’t be getting a new one just like that.”

Local charity Lions 4 Kids donated the 25 backpacks used for food distribution at Liberty Ridge. The majority of the food was supplied by individual donors.

Continued success of the program will depend on donations of food and money to Bonney Lake Community Resources. However, the cost of the program is relatively low, Bowen said.

To provide a worst case scenario, if the program had to purchase all of its food at retail value, the cost would come to $13.92 per student per weekend, he said.

The program has only covered Liberty Ridge up to this point, but Bowen plans to incorporate Bonney Lake Elementary School following Thanksgiving.

The backpack food program is a pilot program for Bonney Lake Community Resources, which was incorporated in June. The organization is currently in negotiations with the city to create a community giving garden for growing produce, Bowen said.

For more information, Bowen can be reached 253-208-6779.