Murray State supports Needline’s Backpack program, prepares for spring food drive
Murray State University faculty, staff and students, in conjunction with Needline, have amassed enough food and donations to give nearly 1,000 in-need children a weekend meal, and plans are underway to continue. The university community collected 862 bags of food and 820 pounds of backpack-appropriate food items for the Backpack Program so far this school year. Nearly $1,200 has been raised for additional Backpack food items. “There are many children in need of food and (the community’s) support is vital to the success of meeting that need,” Robin Taffler, Murray State coordinator of service learning, said.
The Backpack Program is a national, weekly take-home meal service for children in grades preschool through fifth who may not have meals at home on weekends. The program was recently started in Calloway County and has attracted the attention of campus groups such as the Indian Students Association, which designated the Backpack Program its community service project for 2008-09. “This program would not happen if it were not for the generosity of the Murray-Calloway County community and Murray State University,” Taffler said.
Murray State is currently preparing a spring food drive to benefit the Backpack Program. Collection days are scheduled for Jan. 27 and 28. Kid-friendly food such as fruit snacks, juice boxes, peanuts, Pop-Tarts, cheese and crackers, and small, boxed cereals are appropriate items to donate. Donations may be dropped off in marked containers outside the second-floor Thoroughbred Room in Murray State’s Curris Center. For additional information about Murray State’s involvement with the Backpack Program, contact Taffler in the Service Learning and Civic Engagement office at (270) 809-3080, or Re’Nita Avery-Merriwether in Student Life at (270) 809-6953.
The Backpack Program is a national, weekly take-home meal service for children in grades preschool through fifth who may not have meals at home on weekends. The program was recently started in Calloway County and has attracted the attention of campus groups such as the Indian Students Association, which designated the Backpack Program its community service project for 2008-09. “This program would not happen if it were not for the generosity of the Murray-Calloway County community and Murray State University,” Taffler said.
Murray State is currently preparing a spring food drive to benefit the Backpack Program. Collection days are scheduled for Jan. 27 and 28. Kid-friendly food such as fruit snacks, juice boxes, peanuts, Pop-Tarts, cheese and crackers, and small, boxed cereals are appropriate items to donate. Donations may be dropped off in marked containers outside the second-floor Thoroughbred Room in Murray State’s Curris Center. For additional information about Murray State’s involvement with the Backpack Program, contact Taffler in the Service Learning and Civic Engagement office at (270) 809-3080, or Re’Nita Avery-Merriwether in Student Life at (270) 809-6953.
