Have you ever been hungry? Have you ever gone a whole day without food? Two days?

With the first day of school quickly approaching, it is time to begin thinking about the nutrition, or lack of, for our students in Grayson County. Many of our students are going an entire weekend with little or no food when a school meal is not available. When students are not well nourished they do not perform well academically, display unacceptable behavior and have poor attendance due to illness or unexcused absences.

Some identifying traits of a hungry child are: extreme thinness, dry/cracked lips, and itchy eyes; inability to concentrate, excessive absences, and short attention span; behavior problems, which leads to poor academic status.

Home environment factors may also contribute to a child’s hunger.

There are 30.2 percent of the children in Grayson County living in poverty (according to the website quickfacts). This is where the Grayson County Alliance BackPack Program steps in to help those in need. Nutritious, easy-to-prepare foods are sent home in children’s backpacks at the end of each week to ensure they have something to eat until they return to school for breakfast on Monday mornings.

You may ADOPT-A-BACKPACKER with an annual donation of $100. This will supply one child on the BackPack Program with a bag of food each week for an entire school year. Each bag contains eight to 12 kid-friendly food items such as single-serve beef stew or chicken meals, shelf-stable milk, cereal, vegetable cups, cheese or peanut butter crackers, fruit cups, and pudding cups.

If the BackPack Program is something you or your organization would consider adopting, you may do that by mailing your check, of any amount, to:

Grayson County Alliance

125 E. Market Street, Suite 3,

Leitchfield, KY 42754.

Please note “Backpack Program” on the memo line.

If you would like to learn more about the program, contact Donna or Theresa at the Grayson County Alliance at 259-4000.