KINGWOOD – Michelle Wolford’s Pack the Bus will collect donations of food and funds Sunday for the Preston backpack program.
Tammy Laney, coordinator for Food for Preston, which oversees the backpack program in Preston County, said the bus will be parked at the Kingwood Community Building 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. It is also the morning of the Kingwood Volunteer Fire Department’s monthly breakfast.
“This annual event is key to the continued success of our feeding program that provides weekend food for Preston County students,” Laney wrote in an email. She said the program currently serves 360 students.
Tarrell Ries, president of the Rotary Club of Kingwood, said his organization is happy to do what it can to help. “We started the back pack program with Michelle Wolford. It was a way for us to give back to the community,” he said.
Wolford, who died in 2015, was a columnist and reporter for The Dominion Post, and member and president of the Kingwood club. This is the seventh annual Pack the Bus.
According to Laney, the benefits of student feeding programs go well beyond the weekly food bags sent home with students for weekends.
“They help students stay in school, which helps improve attendance, test scores, communication skills, relationships and overall health, as shown in studies from the Society of Research in Child Development and the Journal of Children in Poverty,” she said.
Ries said Pack the Bus accepts donations of cash and snack food. Suggested donations are granola bars, mini cereal boxes, tuna/cracker boxes, canned pasta, canned beef stew, pudding cups, fruit snacks, trail mix and raisins.
“Check and cash donations allow Pack the Bus to buy items that are not donated,” Ries said.
Weekend food bags include two breakfasts (a granola bar and breakfast bar), two lunches (chicken/cracker pack and tuna/cracker pack), two dinners (ravioli cup and beef stew cup) and two snacks (raisins and fruit cup).
It cost $5 per child per week or $180 per child per school year (36 weeks) to support the program.
Michelle Wolford’s Pack the Bus is hosted by the Kingwood Rotary Club, Kingwood Lions Club, Preston County Senior Citizens/Buckwheat Express and the Kingwood Volunteer Fire Department.
For more information about Pack the Bus or to make a donation contact Food for Preston, P.O. Box 1175, Kingwood, WV 26537, phone 304-379-3519 or email coordinator@foodforpreston.org.
