Nonprofit group aims to tackle child hunger in North Idaho

More than half the students in Bonner County schools qualify for free or reduced-price meals during the school week. But what do those children eat on weekends? And do they eat enough?

A new nonprofit aims to tackle child hunger in Sandpoint and surrounding communities by putting more money into weekend food bags sent home with kids from low-income families. An estimated 2,000 hungry kids in the county could be getting more to eat, organizers say.

“We want to focus on getting food directly to the children – food that is nutritious, that doesn’t require preparation, that if the parents are not at home, the kid can open and have something to eat on their own,” said Dennis Pence, who co-founded the former Coldwater Creek Inc. in Sandpoint and now is putting his efforts into Food for Our Children.

Pence said he has heard from teachers and school administrators that many students are disappointed when the weekend arrives because they do not eat as well as they can during the school week. “And Monday they’re awfully glad to get back to that breakfast,” he said.

In Idaho, 49 percent of students in public schools this year are eligible for free or reduced-price breakfast and lunch, according to data just released from the state Department of Education. In the Coeur d’Alene School District, 43 percent of students qualify this year for the federal program.

The numbers are much higher in rural areas, including in Bonner County. In the Lake Pend Oreille School District, 53 percent of students qualify for the program, and 57 percent are eligible in the West Bonner School District, which includes Priest River, Priest Lake and Oldtown.

“It’s a staggering number,” Pence said. “It sounds like some sort of number you’d expect from a really difficult urban environment (with) a lot of unemployment or a lot of food neediness.”

Food for Our Children will raise money to expand a weekend “backpack” program that has been operated the past three years by the Bonner Community Food Bank. It serves 165 children in three elementary schools, and recently 50 younger kids at the North Idaho College Head Start Sandpoint Center were added to the program through a grant from the Kiwanis that was matched by Food for Our Children.

Pence said the goal is to make weekend food bags available to students in need at all schools in the Lake Pend Oreille and West Bonner districts, put more food in each bag and raise the nutritional value of it. Each weekend bag costs $4 now, and Pence said the organization would like to up that to $6 each.

Bags may include individual servings of milk and juice that don’t require refrigeration, snacks such as sunflower seeds and pasta dishes in cans with pop-top lids. A contribution of $225 will cover the cost of weekend food for one child for the school year, Pence said.

“The key is the simplicity of the solution,” he said. “We think we can make a difference pretty quickly.”

Food for Our Children also wants to launch a pilot food-to-go program in the summer, starting in one or more of the schools participating in the backpack program.

“We don’t believe that we’re going to solve this problem overnight, but we do think that with enough initiative and enough help from the community, and hopefully the possibility of future grants as well, we do believe this is a soluble problem and we can make Bonner County a county where hunger by children is dramatically diminished,” Pence said.

Poverty and hunger have grown sharply in Bonner County. In 2001 the food bank in Sandpoint served about 1,100 people a month. Last year it served about 4,700 a month, said Alice Wallace, the executive director.

“So there’s some kind of a problem out there,” Wallace said. She sees higher living costs – food, utilities – driving more families to seek help.

“In this country, nobody should be hungry. There’s no excuse for it at all,” she said. “With the money we have in this country and the food, there is just no reason for these kids to be hungry.”

Bonner County continues to struggle to recover from the Great Recession, Pence said.

“We’re seeing a county that’s always had difficulties, in part of the population, making ends meet,” he said. “But we’re actually seeing it’s harder than ever.”

Pence said the group will operate with very little overhead, and that 95 cents of every dollar will go toward food purchases through the food bank.

“Children are eating during the school day,” he said. “We want to get it to the point where they’re not going to bed hungry during the weekend.”