Ark. teen starts program to feed students in need
CONWAY, Ark. (AP) — It was a discussion in Sunday school three years ago that Abby Hill, 15, of Conway, couldn't get off her mind, or her heart.
The class talked about world hunger and how it's also a local problem.
"I was getting to the age where I was starting to notice that not every kid was as privileged as I was," said Abby, who was in eighth grade at the time.
She went home from First United Methodist Church that day and talked to her mom, Lisa Hill, about it.
Free and reduced-price lunches are available for needy students during school hours, but what about the weekends?
That's when Abby came up with Backpacks for Homes, which is in its third year of providing food for students on weekends.
It's become a family project, with Abby, now a 10th-grader at Conway High School; her sister, Morgan Hill, a 20-year-old junior at Hendrix College; and their mom running the program. Dana Rump, a Hendrix College student and a friend of Morgan's, also fills backpacks.
Abby said she first talked to the counselor at Marguerite Vann Elementary School, where she had been a student.
"She gave us a list of maybe 12 or so (students) that she thought would need (the food)," Abby said.
Abby knew the students might be embarrassed to be seen carrying out food, so she thought of the backpacks.
"They can get on the bus, and it looks like a book bag," Abby said.
"Morgan and I had a bunch of old backpacks we started with that were just a year old," she said. "We bought maybe one or two from Walmart.
In the beginning, they used their own money for the program.
"It started with a $50 donation from one grandparent and a $50 donation from another grandparent and a $50 donation from home," Abby said. "We went to Walmart and bought nonperishable food items.
"It basically just grew from there, and my sister started helping a lot."
Morgan said she was a graduate of the Faulkner County Youth Leadership Institute, and she was inspired to get involved.
Backpacks for Homes became a nonprofit organization that serves three schools in addition to Marguerite Vann: Carl Stuart Middle, Ruth Doyle Intermediate and Phyliss and Raymond Simon Intermediate schools.
Each week, 51 backpacks are filled for students, representing 160 individuals.
The backpacks have a number, not a name, and students take the same backpack with them each Friday.
Counselors tell the Hills how many people are in each family, "so we don't just pack for one kid; we pack for the family," Abby said.
Abby, Morgan and their mother were zipping around a room on a recent Friday morning in the nurse's office at Simon Intermediate School in Conway, quickly filling 20 backpacks.
The food, which is stored at each school, includes macaroni and cheese, ramen noodles, chocolate pudding, fruit juice, toaster pastries and canned vegetables and soup.
"We always try to figure out if they have allergies," Abby said. "We don't pack peanut items."
Lisa Hill said she realizes the food they pack is not as healthy as it could be.
She said originally they bought fruit to stick in the backpacks, but if students forgot to pick up their backpacks, the fruit sometimes spoiled over the next week.
One of the best packaged products Hill said she's found is Homestyle Bakes boxed meals.
"They're a little more expensive, but they have meat in them, and it feeds a family," Hill said.
Each backpack costs approximately $7.77 to fill, Morgan said.
Although Abby said she has never met any of the students who get the backpacks, her mom and sister have.
"My mom gets the privilege of seeing the kids and talking to them," Abby said. "There are a lot of kids who are really just genuinely thankful. They say, 'I really like when you pack the popcorn; I really like when you pack this.'"
Morgan said students have come to thank her for the food.
"I've seen their faces, and it's really sad," Morgan said.
Lisa got teary-eyed as she watched her daughters filling the backpacks.
She has heard some heart wrenching stories from students who receive the backpacks.
"On the first year at Marguerite Vann, there was a second grader that kept his 3-year-old sister all the time while his mother worked," Lisa said. "He would tell us what his sister liked."
Another year, a student had been kicked out of his alcoholic mother's home and was living in a shed, she recalled.
She said that's when the group started packing Vienna sausages and products that don't need to be heated.
The Faulkner County Leadership Institute and First Security Bank went together to donate $830 to the organization. Lisa said that last summer, the leadership institute donated 80backpacks filled with food.
Sunday School classes at First United Methodist Church and First Baptist Church in Conway also support the program.
However, she said the organization doesn't have enough money or volunteers right now to expand to other schools.
"We're packing 20 backpacks here (at Simon Intermediate). We finally had to say, 'We can't pack anymore,'" she said.
Because of Abby's class schedule this year at Conway High School, she normally can't fill backpacks — that recent Friday was an exception.
She helps shop for food and organizes fund raising events for Backpacks for Homes.
She said Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority at the University of Central Arkansas sponsored a Zumbathon for the organization.
Last year, Pepsi gave the organization $1,000. The United Way of Central Arkansas has held food drives for the cause, Hill said.
Abby wrote to President Barack Obama, telling him about the program after hearing one of his speeches on change.
He replied with a letter, which is framed in the entryway of the family's home.
The president wrote, in part: "In the years ahead, may you continue to draw from your experience and work to continue to improve the lives of others.
"Young people like you inspire me and strengthen my hope for the future. Michelle and I wish you the best."
Abby said she'd like to expand the Backpack for Homes program to other schools because she knows it is filling a need.
"I realize what I'm doing is good, but it's like it just is something I really like, so it's not something I think, 'Wow, I'm helping a lot of people,'" Abby said.
"Me and my sister and mom love it so much."
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