By Daphne Jackson
Hamilton Middle School student Garrett Turner is working with national organization No Kid Hungry and local food bank Haven House to raise funds to feed students who can’t afford meals.
Turner said he got involved in the project as part of the Governor and First Lady Youth Leadership Council, an organization set up by Montana Governor Steve Bullock and First Lady Lisa Bullock to encourage students to help with the issue of childhood hunger. Turner said he applied for the program after seeing a flier at school.
“I’m a Boy Scout, and I like doing service projects, so it kind of just caught my eye,” said Turner.
Turner presented his project three times Monday, April 11 to the 6th, 7th and 8th grade classes of Hamilton Middle School. He told his classmates that he did have a couple incentives for them if they participated in his fundraiser.
“If you donate $5 or five pounds of canned foods, and you’re the top donor each day, you can get a Nap’s meal certificate, which is for $9.75,” Turner said. “It’s just a fun thing that you can earn by being the top donor of each day this week.”
As another incentive, the homeroom that donated the most during the week got a pizza party, and those who participated in a daily trivia challenge could win a No Kid Hungry tee-shirt. Turner also encouraged his classmates to participate in Wear Orange Day, a national event No Kid Hungry staged on Wednesday, April 13, to promote awareness of childhood hunger.
As part of his presentation, he invited Terri Webberley, a counselor at Washington Primary, who is involved with the Backpack Program, to talk about how she and a counselor at Daly are working on issues of childhood hunger.
“Before I tell you what the Backpack Program is, let me tell you about one of the kids that’s involved in the Backpack Program,” Webberley said. “She is in first grade and to keep her anonymous, I’ll call her Sally. Her mom has been in prison for as long as she can remember. Her father is in and out of the house, sometimes he works, but often, he is in jail also. Thankfully, her grandmother lives there also, in the home. Her grandmother is old, and tired, and has raised children of her own, and it’s all she can do to care for these five young children under the age of seven. Feeding this family is one of her biggest challenges. Having the money to buy food, finding time to grocery shop, and having the energy to prepare meals are hard for this grandmother.”
Webberley said the Backpack Program is a way for schools to send food home with children discreetly. During times when the students are occupied, Webberley and her counterpart at Daly slip neatly packaged bags of food into the backpacks of about 30 students who need it.
“In the bags, they’ll find milk and cereal, juice boxes, little cans of pasta, cereal bars, fruit cups, things that they can prepare themselves, so they have food for over the weekend,” she said. “If they have younger siblings in the home, they’re taking home extra bags for their siblings also.”
Teachers are the ones that determine which students might be in need of extra food, Webberley said, by watching for who seems to be always hungry, noticing which students are frequently ill or absent, and paying attention when students don’t look healthy.
When a teacher notices a student who might need some extra help, they contact Webberley, who calls the student’s parents to ask, before starting to send food home with the child.
“For Sally, and some of the other kids that receive the backpack bags, the Backpack Program is a lifesaver,” she said. “They can go home on Fridays knowing they will have food in their backpack for themselves, and their younger brothers and sisters. It is one of only a few things that she knows is for sure in her life, that she knows that she’s going to go home and not be hungry that weekend.”
Webberley encouraged the students at the presentation to support Turner’s fundraiser, and said she hoped they would be inspired to also volunteer their time and talents to make a difference in their own communities.
“Our 35th president, John F. Kennedy once said, ‘One person can make a difference, and everyone should try’,” she said. “Garrett Turner is one of those people who is trying to make a difference. He’s making a difference for children in Montana who do not have the proper nutrition to develop physically, mentally, and to perform well at school. Please support him with your donations of food and money to end hunger in Montana.”
For more information about Turner’s fundraiser, or to donate, go to join.nokidhungry.org/goto/hamiltonmontana