Our Blessings In A Backpack Grand Ledge backpack/ bag packing sessions are a lot of fun for all involved. Volunteers from community churches, the Grand Ledge School District, Lion’s Club, Mayor Kal Smith, and other packed up to 200 bags assembly line style, packing the heaviest items first and the lightest items last.
Our logistics team, headed by Lion’s Club members Dave & Steve Peake, pick up and deliver a month’s worth of food to the packing site at the Sawdon Administration Building. The first month’s weekly menu consists of beef ravioli, chicken noodle soup and crackers, applesauce, raisins, oatmeal, and a granola bar. We are accommodating a couple of children with allergies and gluten intolerance, and those menu items are carefully selected and packed on an individual basis.
Grand Ledge residents Bernie Johnson and Fay Schroeder are the site captains for the packing operation. They hand out numbered bags to the volunteers, send them through the assembly line, collect the filled bags and place them into numbered bins that are transported to the Beagle Elementary School cafeteria on Fridays.
The Beagle Elementary School children who qualify to receive a bag are dismissed a few minutes early on Fridays so that they can pick up their bags and not be late for the bus. The students have a label with their personal alphanumeric code in it affixed to their “Friday Folders.” School volunteers help the students find their bags and remind them to return the bags in a bin in the cafeteria on Monday morning.
The students arrive at school Monday mornings well fed and ready to learn. The weekly process starts all over and will continue until the last week of school.
Grand Ledge 