College students can simply swipe their DukeCards to get a bagel from Alpine, but several Duke students are helping local elementary schoolers to pack their backpacks for lunch this semester.
Last Friday, three Duke undergraduates dropped off nearly 50 pounds of collected food—the first load in their student-organized food drive that contributes perishable items to E.K. Powe Elementary’s Weekend Backpack program. The drive, which started in early November, will continue for the duration of the semester.
This school year, more than 75 percent of E.K. Powe’s students are registered for free and reduced lunch. This indicates that these children and their families struggle to meet basic nutritional needs, said junior Taylor Damiani, co-organizer of the project. Although the school provides meals during the week, many of these students may go hungry over the weekend.
“These kids when they’re hungry on the weekends, they have to reach into a backpack and if that backpack is empty, then what?” Damiani said.
The Weekend Backpack program, sponsored by Communities in Schools of Durham, is a donation-based program that relies solely on contributions from the community. Volunteers pack backpacks with six balanced meals and extra snacks to last for an entire weekend. The food is sent home with at-risk students each Friday, and these students return the backpacks Monday so they can be refilled for the next weekend.
Damiani, sophomore Risa Isard and senior Sarah Frush, who organized the drive as a project for a human rights activism class, each reached out to different communities to request food contributions for the program. Damiani asked the Catholic Student Center, Isard asked off-campus Jewish synagogue Beth El and Frush asked residents of her neighborhood.
Every other Friday the three students volunteer at E.K Powe to pack the backpacks.
“All three of us are interested not only in going to pack backpacks, but also in starting this food drive,” Frush said. “We want to try and be proactive about helping the program, and not just offer time once a week. It doesn’t really take that long to pack the backpacks. I think it is helpful, but I think what is most needed is a sustainable source of incoming food.”
Those interested in contributing can bring nonperishable food items to the box in the Catholic Student Center in the basement of the Chapel, Damiani said.
Assistant Professor of Education Helen Compton, co-lead volunteer for the Weekend Backpack program, said there are currently 13 students at E.K. Powe who take backpacks home each weekend, but it is possible that four or five more will be added to the program soon. Compton, who also organizes the program at Eastway Elementary School, said more than half of the 13 elementary schools in Durham have the program.
“This past year, there has been a lot more interest in [the Weekend Backpack Program] because I think everybody is realizing that with the economic times, families don’t have money to buy food,” Compton said.
E.K. Powe Counselor Marion Davis said the Weekend Backpack program has positively impacted the school.
“Several students have said that they just don’t have enough food to carry them through the weekend,” Davis said. “I believe when students are hungry, they cannot learn as they are intended to. It is a program that I feel lots of schools can benefit from because [the students] look forward to their backpack on the weekend.”
The three Duke volunteers gained more than personal gratification from their community service.
“I have learned a lot about the Durham community,” Isard said. “Before, I found myself saying things about Durham that I actually have no basis for saying. I went into the school with preconceived notions, but when I got there I realized that this is an elementary school just like [the one] I went to.”
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