Issue link: http://maconmagazine.uberflip.com/i/1184228
3 6 | M A C O N M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y / M A R C H 2 0 1 9 " The food is important, that 's what we do. But from the start, we knew this was more about relationships than anything." -Brenda Lambert friend and fellow Forest Hills small group Bible study member – brought up the idea that led the group to pack weekend food for an initial nine children. "Nine! When we started it was nine and now 1,878?" Adkisson both asks and exclaims. "It 's sad there's such a need. I still don't see how we do it except we pray a lot. I'm glad we do, though, and glad for volunteers who make it happen. I'm afraid most of us don't have any idea what some of these children go through." At Forest Hills, they call it the Backpack Ministry. Elsewhere, similar efforts go by Backpack Buddies and other names, but the idea is always to provide hungry children – who need nutritional support through free school breakfast and lunch programs – similar support over weekends. " We had no idea it would lead here," Lambert said. " We just started working out of our kitchens." Now they work out of a large, church-owned house converted to a shelved warehouse of sorts. More storage buildings are out back. Food comes in weekly, mainly from the Food Bank, donations and other vendors — wherever the price is best. It 's shelved, repacked in bags (or backpacks if a child needs one), placed in rolling carts, and loaded in vans to go to schools. All by volunteers, including Lambert and Adkisson. At schools, volunteers personally hand bags to students or leave them in classrooms depending on school needs. About 200 volunteers, vetted and background-checked, get to hand out bags. "The food is important, that 's what we do. But from the start, we knew this was more about relationships than anything," Lambert said. "Relationships with students, teachers, principals, counselors and volunteers. There's encouragement in that. And from the start, we were always sensitive as to whether taking food would embarrass children. We never want to do that." April Griffin is a counselor at Union Elementary School where she said 120 of the school's 520 students benefit from the weekend food. "Kids ask me every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 'Are they coming? Are we going to get our backpacks this week?' They know they come on Friday but they want that reassurance," she said. Griffin said she's seen attitudes change and grades improve among many in the program. It 's a result of interaction with the volunteers as well as from the food. "Somehow it clearly helps attendance," she said. "That 's clear and it also has a positive impact on behavior. Kids look forward to seeing their grown-up backpack friends and it 's an incentive." W hat 's in the bags? "It has to be child-friendly, child-sized and pop-top items are great," Lambert said. "That means individual servings; we can't use gigantic cans of beans or whatever. We like putting 15 items in, but sometimes with food bank shortages or low funds, it 's more like 12. We typically put four drinks, three proteins, three fruit items, three snacks and two breakfast items. Things like cheese and crackers, fruit cups, shelf-stable milk, cereal, breakfast bars, chips, varieties of things like that." Lambert said if food could be bought strictly from the Middle Georgia Community Food Bank it would only cost about $1.50 to feed each child each week. But because food has to meet the child-friendly requirement and because of shortages, that can't happen. Usually, it 's a mix. When buying retail, the cost per child is about $5 a week. In light of such varied items, Lambert searched for a way to quantify how much food goes out each Friday. She said, "Take 1,878 children, multiply that by each getting three milk or juice boxes and you get 5,634 going to children every week. That 's just a part, and that 's a lot." And the need grows, even as food banks face shortages and ministry donations may be up or down that week. Lambert said after two schools combined, need there rose from 130 to 209 students. Sadly, she had to tell officials she couldn't meet it. She could only do 170. Adkisson said that was difficult because Lambert is someone who has never said no to the need – but in this case, she had to. BRENDA LAMBERT AND BAXTER HURLEY