Snack Pack Ministry gears up for new school year

HAMILTON COUNTY, Tenn. (WDEF) — A program in Hamilton County that makes sure no child goes hungry getting ready to start back up again.

Inside the East Brainerd Church of Christ, there is a room full of storage boxes. This is where the Snack Pack Ministry keeps their bags for students in need of food.

The program started six years ago.

“The reason we started was we heard from one of the principals, who actually was my son and he was a principal at Red Bank High School and he told us that he had some food insecure children that went to school at Red Bank High School. I was absolutely blown away by that and I felt like I needed to do something to help those children,” said Janice Robertson, with Snack Pack Ministry.

Since then it’s grown. They helped 4 other churches start programs. They now have a presence in 24 schools.

“I’ve got to have 70 thousand individual pieces of food. We are packing 7 thousand bags, each bag has ten items. So I’ve got to make sure all of those items are here and ready to pack and roll out to the students in the schools,” said Anita Kapperman, with Snack Pack Ministry.

Organizers say their favorite part is the packing.

“It is real up beat, we usually have about 300 volunteers from the community. It is great because we have a lot of the school teachers principals and even Dr. Johnson who comes and packs,” Robertson said.

Someone sent them this image of a student going through a dumpster outside of a Hamilton County School cafeteria.

People were later able to help the boy and his family.

“It touched us and it made us know that yes, what we are doing is right and it made us want to do more,” Robertson said.

Starting next week, students who need them will get the snack packs on Friday during the school year.

If you are interested in donating or volunteering contact the East Brainerd Church of Christ at 423-892-1389 or email EBCC@eastbrainerdchurch.org.