Vinton-Shellsburg student volunteers help with filling bags, stomachs

After Vinton-Shellsburg High School students Riley Ries and Kylie Miracle learned about international food aid in debate club, they started an effort to send food overseas. Then they realized there was also a need much closer to home.

Operation: BackPack, a Linn County program run by Hawkeye Area Community Action Program (HACAP), sends food home with low income students on weekends. It is meant to keep kids fed on days they aren't getting school lunch and breakfast.

The program served 1,500 students in the last two years, but it wasn't reaching students in Vinton and Shellsburg.

Now, thanks to efforts by seniors Ries and Miracle, along with a group of student volunteers they've recruited, more than 90 elementary students take home a bag of food each weekend.

'I've always been fortunate to come home to food on the table,” Ries said. 'But we have about 34 percent of our students on free and reduced lunch. We recognized that there's a lot more we could be doing for them.”

Administrators had also recognized the need and had been talking about bringing Operation: BackPack to the district but weren't sure how to handle the logistics. Then Ries and Miracle approached them with the same idea.

'The administrative team had started looking into it and realized it would be a pretty big undertaking, in that we would need some partners to do the work to get it off the ground and to pack the food each week,” said Tilford Elementary School Principal Ryan Davis.

The size of the project didn't stop the students.

'It was really Riley and Kylie who made the contacts, organized food delivery, found out how many backpacks we would need,” Davis said. 'They made presentations to civic organizations in town, made contacts with local businesses, looked into grant possibilities, lined up help to pack the backpacks.”

Once a month, about 12 middle and high school students gather at Tilford to pack up a month's worth of donated food - 400 bags worth. They've recruited adult community members to help as well. Local businesses have contributed money and food donations. Vinton-based delivery company Monkeytown drives to HACAP's headquarters to pick up the food each month before the students sort and package it.

Tilford student service coordinator Molly Noren helps with the program, which also serves students from Shellsburg Elementary. Students have to qualify for free and reduced lunch to take home food.

Before the program started, organizers anticipated 50 students signing up, she said. Instead, the initiative now serves almost double that number.

'I know the families are appreciative, and the majority of them really, really need it,” she said

Ries and Miracle are searching for younger students to take over the program when they graduate at the end of this school year. They'll hold a school assembly in January to recruit student leaders.

Davis said he hopes the student's efforts inspire other people to give back.

'I think it's pretty phenomenal that two high school students saw the need and are willing to put in the time that they do,” Davis said. 'I think they're a good example not just for other students, but for adults.”

Donate to Operation: BackPack

Total Balance, a fitness studio in Vinton, is raising money for Operation: BackPack in January, February and March. Each month, donate $25 and receive a T-shirt and a calendar of daily fitness challenges - plank challenges in January, crunch challenges in February and core challenges in March. For more information, send an email to julie@totalbalancelife.com. All proceeds go to Operation: BackPack.