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The Collinsville
FFA officer team worked together to help provide food for elementary
students who are part of the Backpacks for Kids program. Students
in the program receive food to take home each weekend to help
bridge the gap for students who may not receive enough food over
the weekend. Thank you to the following sponsors: Collinsville
Family Pharmacy, Bayouth Insurance, Hometown Real Estate, Coach
Robb’s 6th hour class, Diane Martin, and Branen Lawn and
Maintenance inc. Wal-Mart also donated a $50 gift card which was
used to purchase toys. The Sale Barn Theater hosted a movie night
and the entry fee was a canned food item, they gathered roughly
180 pounds of food which was added to what we had already acquired.
We would also like to give a special thanks to Jodi Kaiser and
Community Care for donating bags so we could divide the food and
toys evenly for each of the students who are a recipients of the
backpack program. We are proud to say that thanks to everyone’s
hard work and involvement 38 elementary school students received
a bag with 10 food items and a wrapped toy. Childhood hunger is
not just an issue around the holidays, if you would like to donate
items for the backpack program or school pantry contact any school
counselor.
In Oklahoma
alone 16.2% of our population suffers from food insecurity, the
rate for children is 23.8%. Another great opportunity to help
hungry children in Oklahoma is through the Oklahoma FFA Hunger
Challenge. Oklahoma FFA has partnered with several organizations
statewide to provide protein sticks for children in Oklahoma who
are part of the backpack program. All donations are used in Oklahoma
and 100% of your donation goes to the cause. You can donate an
animal such as a pig or beef animal (for which you will receive
a tax deduction for the market price of the animal) that will
be picked up by a Oklahoma Farm Bureau employee at no cost to
you and processed into protein sticks. You can also donate animals
such as goats or sheep (you will still receive a tax deduction
for your donation) which will be sold and the money will be used
to pay processing and packaging costs for protein sticks or you
can simply donate money directly to the cause. Last year 226 Oklahoma
FFA Chapters pulled together and donated 540 animals and $7,341
and was therefore able to contribute 1 Million protein sticks
to the backpack program in Oklahoma. For more information on the
FFA Hunger Challenge contact any FFA Member or Mrs. Hamlin.
Kaylyn Branen, Laney Branen, Barrett Matlock, Justin Branen, Jeremy
Sanders and School Counselors
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