Culver City scored a touchdown with last weekend’s Backpacks for Kids program food drive at the Pavilions market on Jefferson Boulevard.
The two-day event brought in $6,600 worth of food and donations, moving the ball well down the field within sight of the goal.
The Backpacks program provides food for the weekend for students throughout the Culver City school system. Currently feeding 100 families, the program started with 50 in December 2013 and has grown rapidly.
The dynamic trio of Leslie Gardner, Megan Rawls, and Jamie Wallace gathered together a wonderful crew of volunteers, including parents, students, a person running for City Council, roped-in spouses, even graduates who handed out flyers and cheerfully talked to shoppers from morning into evening.
Shoppers responded with exuberance and kindness,donating food and money for the program.
The drive is perhaps best summed up by Göran Eriksson who volunteered on Sunday before the Super Bowl. Said the City Council candidate:
“I have participated in the annual homeless count for years. I have seen, first-hand, the increase in homelessness in our area. Many people in Culver City have no idea that students in our District are homeless or are faced with financial situations at home that mean they may not get enough food, especially during the weekends.
“The Backpacks for Kids program,” Mr. Eriksson said, “has had an incredibly positive impact on those families who need a little help.”
The Backpacks Program is completely reliant on donations. It does not receive funding from the School District or the state.
At this time, they fill 100 backpacks a week with around $10 worth of food in each.
Over the 36-week school term, that equates to a budget of around $36,000 a year. During their last food drive in July, the Backpacks team had a chance encounter with a representative from the Mark Hughes Charitable Foundation.
Supt. David LaRose continued the conversation with the Hughes Foundation which brought an invitation to write a grant for funding.
At the end of 2015, aided by Mr. LaRose and Ms. Gardner, we sent in a grant request. The Mark Hughes Foundation recently gave Backpacks a $25,000 check.
The Mark Hughes grant gives Backpacks its first ever operating fund. Every year there is an anxious scramble for funding from school PTA and booster clubs, as well as sending requests to charitable and social organizations, individuals, and the community.
With the Hughes grant as well as generous donations from immediate past chair Kevin Lachoff and the Chamber of Commerce, and the Lois and Jason Frand family, Backpacks is breathing easier and can meet this school year’s commitment.
For information or to donate, see www.ccbackpacksforkids.com. Email CCBackpacksforKids@gmail.com
Ms. Wallace is co-coordinator of the Backpacks for Kids program.
Amazing people doing amazing, worthwhile work. Everyone should support this group!
That’s wonderful news about the $25,000 grant! Each year, for the past two or three years, the Linwood E. Howe Boosters have written out a check for $500 to CCPTA for Backpacks for Kids, while Lin Howe’s PTA has headed up the food collection effort here on this campus. Parent organizations on the other CCUSD campuses have been doing likewise, I know. So great to hear that our those efforts have now been amplified, so-many-fold, by generous donors like the Mark Hughes Foundation. Thank you to them, and also, of course, to Leslie Gardner, Megan Rawls, Jamie Wallace, and everyone else leading this effort.
This really is a community effort. Additionally, special thanks go to Pavilions Store Manager Robert Sakaguchi and Assistant Manager Stanley Hodge, III, who created an enticing display and helped in every way possible throughout the weekend.