Buddy Bags program to help BV students, families

MANLIUS — A committee of concerned residents has started a Bureau Valley Buddy Bags program to help make sure children have food when they aren’t in school.

Committee Chairperson Brenda Lovick, pastor of the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Manlius, said the Bureau Valley Buddy Bags program started in discussion last February after several residents learned about a similar program started by residents in the Princeton Elementary School District.

After meeting with representatives of the Princeton group, the Bureau Valley committee started its program in April, giving out 13 bags to kindergarten students and their siblings. By the end of the school year, the Bureau Valley program was expanded to include first-graders and their siblings with 35 Buddy Bags distributed each week.

This year’s Bureau Valley Buddy Bags program will begin this week, Lovick said.

Selection for the program is based on the kindergarten or first grade child’s participation in the school’s free lunch program, along with parental consent. Siblings will again be included because they need the food too, Lovick said.

Each bag includes a breakfast item, lunch item, snack and either a juice box or milk for each day of the weekend. On holidays, additional food is put in the bags.

As the school year begins, the committee is hoping for support from the entire Bureau Valley community through food and monetary donations, as well as help on Thursdays to pack the Buddy Bags.

To provide enough food for 35 Buddy Bags is projected to cost about $7,500 a school year, or about $5 per bag for two days, Lovick said. The committee would like to expand its outreach, if possible, into the older grades as well kindergarten and first grades, she said.

To help with expenses, the committee is able to buy food items through the Western Bureau County Food Pantry, which is a great savings, Lovick said. Collected items are being stored at the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Manlius. Monetary donations can be mailed to Bureau Valley Buddy Bags; P.O. Box 384; Manlius, IL. 61338.

Though centered in Manlius, committee members come from throughout the Bureau Valley School District, including from Wyanet, Walnut, Buda, Sheffield and Manlius. Also, community organizations, sports teams, church congregations, any type of group wanting to do a service project is encouraged to consider the Buddy Bags program.

The Bureau Valley Buddy Bags program is an outreach to help not just the children who receive the food, but also to their families and the schools, Lovick said.

“We are not only supporting the children, although that is the primary concern, we are also supporting the families. And, we want to support the teachers, so they have an environment where the kids can have all their basic needs met, so they can focus on learning,” Lovick said. “Children who come to school hungry can’t focus as well as they should on learning. So we are giving these children the opportunity to come to school ready to listen and learn with clarity of mind.”

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Examples of food in Buddy Bags

• Canned meats, soups and pastas with pop tops.

• Fruits and100 percent juice boxes; applesauce without sugar, raisins.

• Breakfast items like small boxed cereal, breakfast bars and milk boxes.

• Snacks like pudding cups, pretzels, cheese crackers, animal crackers, and low-fat or no-fat sugar cookies.