Blessings in a Backpack Sends Food Home with Wilkinsburg Students

Linda Lafferty is spreading the love.

While she views her own son as a walking miracle and considers her grandchildren blessed in a big way, she wanted to help students at Johnston Elementary in Wilkinsburg make sure they had enough snacks over the weekend to keep their bellies full.

“I just feel so blessed with my family and I don’t think people realize children in their own backyards are going hungry,” Lafferty said.

After discovering a national program, Blessings in a Backpack, she decided to organize it herself at the local school. Each Thursday, volunteers gather at the school to fill backpacks designated strictly for food with snacks, juice boxes and other small foods.

Every Friday, students report to the downstairs library for their backpack and take it home for the weekend.

The Blessings in a Backpack program is funded strictly by donations and run by all volunteers. About 190 children are fed at Johnston Elementary each week.

Backpacks are usually filled with two juice boxes, a breakfast food, which could be Pop Tarts, an instant Ramen soup, cheese crackers, apple sauce and popcorn.

Lafferty, who is originally from Wilkinsburg and now lives in Plum, said it costs $80 to feed a child through the program for the year.

“I call that the power of 80,” Lafferty said.

She is hoping to expand the program to Kelly and Turner schools in Wilkinsburg this year. For Lafferty, it’s all about giving the children a little something extra to take home.

“I think the parents are happy to have these extra snacks,” she said.

In other parts of the country, some people who are able to do so adopt an entire school. Celebrity Hillary Duff adopted two schools in Los Angeles and pays for the whole program at those locations.

“If that could happen here, that would be wonderful,” she said.

To make a donation to the local chapter of Blessings in a Backpack, send a check to P.O. Box 14296, Plum, Pa., 15239 or e-mail llafferty3962@yahoo.com.