Feeding Cibola’s Hungry

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Grants-Milan Rotary Feeding Kids on Weekends

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  • Feeding Cibola’s Hungry
    Feeding Cibola’s Hungry
  • Feeding Cibola’s Hungry
    Feeding Cibola’s Hungry
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Despite the fact that the COVID public health emergency is expected to officially end in April of this year, the government announced that the COVID Emergency increase in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program commonly known as SNAP will come to an end in March of 2023. That means that the nationwide weekend food program called The Backpack Program is needed more than ever.

The Backpack program in Cibola County is administered by the Grants-Milan Rotary Club. Every week 212 elementary students residing in Cibola County receive food for the weekend in an effort to ensure that they get food when they are not in school. During the school week, qualifying elementary school kids receive a free or reduced cost hot breakfast or lunch. According to Rotary President, JoAnne Martinez, “This is a collective effort. We started in 2017 because we realized that so many kids were going hungry on the weekends.”

According to the US Department of Agriculture, nine million children in the USA are food insecure, meaning they do not know when their next meal is coming. The USDA predicts that food prices are expected to rise as much as 4.5 percent in 2023, and that’s on top of the 10 percent rise from 2021 to 2022. “The price of food has gone up. This is the most critical time for this program. We’re really grateful for all the people who chip in and help,” Martinez said.

The Grants-Milan Rotary is able to fund the Backpack Program through a three-year grant from the Grants Cibola County Schools as well as fundraisers like the Ty Detmer Golf Outing, the Bowl-a-thon, and donations from communityminded citizens like Roger and Evelyn Siegmann who operate the holiday window painting program.

Food is prepared at the Nutrition Center in Grants on Second Street and Washington. School counselors pick up the food and transport it to the schools. Backpack meals vary but may contain items like cereal, oatmeal, or granola bars, bread, milk, juice, mac n cheese, soup, pb&j, fresh or canned fruit and vegetables, plus snack items. According to Feeding America, the largest hunger relief organization in the United States, without enough proper nutrients, children struggle to grow and to learn.

“The community really comes together. There are a lot of unsung heroes,” Rotary President Martinez said, embodying the two official mottoes of the international humanitarian organization: Service Above Self and One Profits Most Who Serves Best.