Weekend Backpack Program Feeds Many Students

Every Wednesday, a team of dedicated volunteers gather in the basement of the Leavenworth Community United Methodist Church. It doesn’t take long—less than half an hour—to assemble 72 bags with thirteen food items, but it is critical work. These food bags are destined for the backpacks of Cascade School District students each Friday afternoon.

They will provide food items to stretch a family’s pantry, a food buffer for the weekend, so to speak, when the children are not receiving free and reduced lunch and breakfast at school. The foods are nonperishable and require little or no prep.

Recent items in the food bags included mac and cheese, instant rice, instant oatmeal, chili, canned fruit, pudding, milk boxes and microwave popcorn.

Individuals from the Methodist Church congregation and other friends have been coordinating this Weekend Backpack program for over a decade, and they deliver food bags to three schools, Peshastin Dryden Elementary, Icicle River Middle School and Cascade High School. The Leavenworth Church of the Nazarene has assumed responsibility for Alpine Lakes Elementary, and the Plain Community Church recently started providing similar aid to Beaver Valley School.

Of course, there’s more to it than just assembling the bags. Dean Groby has been leading up the logistics for years. “It has been seven years since I first started helping with the program,” Groby said. “I just volunteered to start with, then took over running the program.

“The biggest challenge is planning the menus and then buying all the groceries. We do this every two weeks during the school year. We usually give the kids extra food before winter, mid-winter and spring breaks.” This means every two weeks, Groby makes a run to Wenatchee and fills his car to the ceiling, Tetris-style, with boxes purchased at Costco and Winco. This load would be transported via an elevator to a spacious closet in the church basement.

And then on Tuesdays, a few people get everything organized. They set up tables with the exact number of bags on them, and lay out an exact count of all the items on the front tables.

Since late winter, Groby has had to take a break from his role while he’s recovering from a medical procedure. “Dean would do it all. He did more than we were aware of,” said Judy Weaver, a longtime volunteer. With his absence, Weaver added, “The last couple of months have been quite the adventure! Donna Whalen and I trying to piece things together.”

Coordinating with the schools takes effort too. “Every August I contact the counselors at IRMS, PD and Cascade,” said Groby. “The students in the program are on the free/reduced lunch program and we don't know who they are. The school counselors take care of identifying the students and handling the paperwork involved.”

In the beginning of the school year, this volunteer team prepared 35 bags for the three schools. It’s steadily grown to its current 72, as families get involved. Thus, the volunteers must always be ready for a change in numbers.

Not knowing the recipients, the volunteers are perfectly content to know that the food bags are well received. The counselors say that some children ask eagerly for them midweek.

Other volunteers, Strode Weaver and Eileen Groby, apply for local grants, but the program is not financially secure from year to year. “We can always use monetary donations,” said Dean Groby. “It costs around $20,000 to run the program for one year.”

Donations can be sent to the Leavenworth Community United Methodist Church, and marked for the Backpack Program. The address is 418 Evans St, Leavenworth.

Another way to support this worthwhile cause is to attend the Gladsong concert on July 23^rd at 7 p.m. in the Snowy Owl Theater at Icicle Creek Center for the Arts. Gladsong is a local choir that sings a variety of classic, pop and inspirational songs and dedicates all the proceeds of their concerts to local nonprofits. In the case of this concert, the Weekend Backpack program is also grateful to Morgan Stanley, and local affiliate Dan Becraft, who is sponsoring the concert to cover the rental expenses.

The Weekend Backpack program will continue, week after week, year after year, because there will always be a need. One volunteer said, “Unless you have a kid in the school district, you don’t know about this program.” It runs quietly because these volunteers are tireless in their dedication.