Lehighton partners for weekend food subsidy

School breakfast and lunch may satisfy the palate Monday through Friday, but some students go home wondering where their meals will come from on the weekend.

That is all changing in Lehighton Area School District thanks to the Second Harvest Food Bank.

Lehighton’s school board on Monday approved a “Backpack Buddies” program, run through the Nazareth-based food bank, which will supply a bag of food for students in need each weekend.

Meredith Mecca said the food bank has secured enough private funding to run the program in Lehighton for the next four years.

“A lot of times students are guaranteed free or reduced lunches during the week, but for whatever reason they may not have access to food on the weekends,” Mecca said.

“When kids are hungry, they are not thinking about succeeding, or their future, they are thinking about the next meal, and that is detrimental for a lot of reasons. That is where this program comes in.”

Mecca said the food bank will make one delivery to Lehighton each month and then a site coordinator will organize the distribution of food packs to students each Friday.

She estimated the program would serve between 50 and 60 Lehighton students.

“We work with site directors, counselors, nurses and teachers to identify who would be what we would term chronically hungry children,” Mecca said. “They are showing the greatest signs that they don’t have good access to food over the weekend.”

The food bank tries to keep the meals both kid-friendly and nutritious.

Cereal and peanut butter are sent home with students once a month, while fruits and vegetables will be in the packs weekly.

Districts can also choose to supplement the packs with bread, other produce, or items they see fit.

The program also doesn’t stop just because school takes a summer break.

“We set up with a local summer feeding program or food pantry so students are still able to pick up their bags somewhere close on Friday afternoons.” Mecca said.

Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver said he’s excited Backpack Buddies is coming to Lehighton.

“We’ve talked about this for a while and this is a great opportunity for our students,” Cleaver said. “We’re very thankful for the efforts of the food bank.”

Second Harvest serves more than 800 children across three counties through the backpack program.

“It’s been difficult to break into Carbon County, but hopefully by being here, it will be easier to expand to other schools and areas,” Mecca said.