Senior Alex Simmons has been volunteering with Blessings in a Backpack for the past year. Blessing in a Backpack is a nonprofit organization that provides children within the community with meals over the weekend.
“I started getting into Blessings in a Backpack through my friend Bailey. She started volunteering with them last year. She became close friends with the people who run it through Interact Club, then she started inviting people in our church group to come and volunteer with her,” said Simmons.
The volunteers make thousands of bags a year for kids. These bags are spread to all the elementary schools involved directly in the community. Many high schoolers in the community volunteer to help put these bags together every week just like Simmons.
“I enjoy that it affects kids within our community. It’s amazing to see the difference that we make right here in real time, and it’s not like we’re making meal packs and sending them across the country,” Simmons said. “It’s within the families of Center Grove. The fact that I went to some of these elementary schools, and now giving back to them is just really special to me to make that impact and be able to see my impact.”
In addition to the students volunteering, Blessings in a Backpack wouldn’t be able to happen without donations from businesses like Meijer’s. Students and the community make a collective effort to ensure that every child receives the necessary support they need.
“We make sacks for the kids to take home on the weekends for a little extra food to get them through the weekend,” Simmons said. “Meijer donates leftover food each week, and so we get numbers from all the elementary schools of how many meals we need to plan for. Then we ask Meijer for those bags, and then we pack all the meals. An example of the food the kids would get is like two cans of food items, two cereal items, some sort of protein, and then maybe like a Capri Sun or like a snack of some sort.”
This program helps ensure that children in the community don’t go hungry. Blessings in a Backpack has made so many impacts over the years, and continues to make these impacts by involving more volunteers.
“I love volunteering with Blessings in a Backpack. It’s very rewarding to see how I’m personally making an impact,” Simmons said. “Trying to give these kids that are underprivileged or are on the free reduced meals in our community the ability to have breakfast, lunch and maybe dinner over the weekend when they’re not at school is just amazing. Knowing that I had some part of making that happen for the kids as well is even better.”
