GULFPORT, Miss.- A program that provides food for children in need lost most of its funding in August.
Blessings in a Backpack caters to the Gulfport and Harrison county areas. The program was providing food for nearly 400 students in need to take home for the weekend. Last year they experienced a small budget cut going from $40,000 a year to $33,000, but this August they took a huge hit leaving them with only $8,000 in funding.
The program is part of an organization in Kentucky that started about five years ago. They received a Walmart grant that allowed them to allocate funds to areas all over the U.S. to help feed children.
Program Director for the Gulfport area, Leslie Anderson, said that they have even had to cut schools this year because they are only able to feed around 200 students. They are having to ask the school counselors and nurses to pick the children who need the food the most, and that’s who is getting the backpacks.
Anderson says the families of these children have taken the hardest hit. Many of them relied on this food for the weekend in previous years.
The group is making a request for anyone interested in volunteering or providing donations.
You can contact them through:
Trinity United Methodist Church at 228-863-2717
OR
mail in a donation at 5007 Lawson Avenue, Gulfport MS, 39570.
