Helping Hungry Students at Mineral Springs Elementary

On Friday Nov. 2, people with Mineral Springs Elementary School, Peace Haven Baptist Church and the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina celebrated the school’s BackPack program. Since January, people have been packing enough nutritious, nonperishable foods for four meals and sending it home on Fridays with 50 Mineral Springs students who are eligible for free or reduced-price meals at school during the week. The BackPack program is a national program in which organizations work with local food banks. For an entire school year, it costs about $10,000 to feed 50 children by providing a total of 8,000 meals during 40 weekends. 

Peace Haven Baptist Church, which has a long-standing relationship with Mineral Springs Elementary, serves as the sponsoring organization for the program there. Gary and Ginger Hauser helped establish the program at Mineral Springs and donated money to make it possible. The food is stored at the church, and, each week, Wayne Loekle, a member of Peace Haven Baptist Church, brings the food to the school. At the school, Mike Nuckolls, the counselor; Kendrick Leak, the home/school coordinator; and Betty Paschall, the curriculum coordinator, are among those working on the program.

Speaking to all those who make the program possible, Principal Debra Gladstone said, “I cannot thank you enough….These children are our future.”

Mineral Springs is one of 18 schools in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County schools participating in the Feeding America BackPack program. Altogether, they provide food to almost about 1,000 Winston-Salem/Forsyth County students who, otherwise, might have gone hungry on weekends.

Debra Gladstone