Weekend packs feed kids at North Elementary

MOSES LAKE - Bobby Susemihl's task required concentration.

Susemihl was one of the volunteers filling backpacks with donated food, headed home for the weekend with students at North Elementary School. Susemihl was transferring peanut butter from big jars to baby food jars, which is not as easy as it looks, and it doesn't look easy.

Peanut butter, though, is a kid-friendly food and the all-volunteer effort is designed to be kid-friendly. It grew out of a similar volunteer effort during Christmas vacation.

North's lunchroom was closed, but Principal Sydney Richins wanted to make sure kids who needed it still got lunch. She got together with operators of Serve Moses Lake and organized an all-volunteer program that provided a meal during the two weeks of vacation.

One effort prompted another. Richins wanted to make sure kids had something to eat on weekends. "Sydney saw a need and she said, 'You know, we're going to keep doing this. We're going to find a way,'" Susemihl said.

So every Friday volunteers from the school's Parent-Teacher Organization, parents and grandparents got together in a storage room in the North gym. Last Friday it took them about an hour to fill backpacks with bread, peanut butter and jam, lunch meat, raisins and applesauce.

The idea is to provide each family with a weekend's worth of lunch for all the kids, packaged to make it easy for kids to use. The backpacks are returned during the week, and will be filled again on Friday.

The program started immediately after Christmas vacation, and most of the food donated so far has come from the Moses Lake Food Bank, said PTO President Sheryl Casella. But any and all donations of kid-friendly food will be accepted, Casella said.

It works best if the food is in packages that are easy for children to open and are microwavable if they must be heated, she said.

The group has a freezer, donated anonymously within a few days of making the need public. "It was a brand new one that came in from the Home Depot." Casella said. They are still in need of a donated refrigerator, she said. Because some donated food is repackaged, donations of empty jars are being solicited as well, she said.

They're also looking for backpacks, either new or used in good condition, she said. The number of families participating is expected to grow as word of the program spreads. Because of that, they're also looking for volunteers who can work for a maximum of two hours on Friday afternoons.

(The volunteers are still working out the kinks; one unfortunate boy accidentally got a pink backpack covered with princesses. It came back rolled up in his school backpack and was given to the secretary in conditions of great secrecy.)

The group also has a clothing bank for children who might need a change of clothes but don't have one readily available. They're looking for clothes suitable for school, new or used in good condition, Casella said.

Everything from underwear and socks to pants and sweatshirts will be accepted, as long as they're clean. Most of the kids who use the clothing bank are in the primary grades, she said, so the group especially is looking for sizes between 4 and 8, she said.

People who want to donate can leave items at the North Elementary School office, 1200 W. Craig St.