St. Edmond students help feed their own

By LORI BERGLUND
Special to Lumen Media
 
A weekend is a long time to go without food. It’s hard to come back to school on a Monday, ready to learn, when there has been not quite enough food to go around for a family for two and a half days.

When a long-time Backpack Buddies program ended in Fort Dodge at the start of the 2024-25 school year, the precarious balance of food insecurity tipped in the wrong direction for many area families. For more than 10 years, the Backpack Buddies program provided food essentials to cover quench weekend hunger for more than 650 students throughout Fort Dodge public and parochial schools.

Sponsored by the Noon Sertoma Club, the cost of the program was topping $85,000 annually, and had become too large for the club. Other sources would need to step up to help fill the growing need.

Working in cooperation with the Holy Trinity Parish food pantry, students at Fort Dodge St. Edmond’s School have done just that. Seniors in the discipleship class are working to help take care of their fellow students with a new weekend food program. Serving a much smaller number of students within the St. Edmond community, grocery stacks stuffed with food essentials are sent home every Friday, helping to curb hunger and keep kids on track for learning — even on Monday mornings.

“It’s a good way to teach kids about food insecurity,” said high school religion teacher Marva Dillon. “It’s a good way to for kids to learn that they probably have friends who don’t always have enough food in the house — even if they don’t know who they are.”

A Des Moines native, Dillon has been teaching at St. Edmond since 2018. A Cornell College graduate, she teaches high school religion, sixth grade religion, Christian service and senior discipleship classes. It’s a broad class list, that’s simply all about putting the work of Christ in action. In this case, feeding their fellow students.

In many cases, such food insecurity is hidden from even close friends. A family probably has some food, according to Dillon, but there are still gaps to fill. Perhaps they even have some assistance, but keeping the pantry and refrigerator stocked remains a constant worry for many working families. With prices rising rapidly for such basics and eggs and milk, families who never thought they would face insecurity, might just be quietly facing it.

“We do have students who are affected by this,” Dillon said. “I’ve always kept granola bars in my closet because I know there are kids who are hungry. They just come in and get them.”
For the weekend food program, the goal is to send food basics that will help, not just the student, but the entire family, according to Dillon. Many of the foods are grab-and-go, so that kids can feed themselves while parents may be away from home working. Common foods in the weekend bags include pudding cups, canned soup, canned pasta dinners, fruit cups, fruit, cereal, Jell-O, and drink boxes.

“I’m sure they are eating more on the weekend, but what if they are not?” Dillon said.
Between paychecks, low-income working families often face food insecurity that varies greatly from week to week.
Above, Hadley Oswald packs weekend food bags for students at St. Edmond. Top photo, Sam Meyer and Klay Baker sort and package food.At Christmastime, Dillon said she and her students decided to expand the program and started a fund-raiser that coincided with a week of Christmas concerts for the different grade levels at St. Edmond. The goal was to be able to pack enough food, not for just one weekend, for the entire Christmas break when kids would be missing school meals.
“We decorated some trees and people were able to bid on them and take them home, or just make a donation,” Dillon noted.

What happened next surprised even Dillon. The “disciples” in Dillon’s religion classes were invited to speak briefly at the concerts, explain the program and the need to raise funds. To hear the message from a student helping fellow students clearly moved those in the audience.

“We did really well with that fundraiser,” she said. “The whole fundraiser evolved beyond what we planned. So many people made donations, and one person made a huge donation and told us, ‘I just want them to have a nice Christmas.’”

Dillon and her students were delighted to see the pantry overflow as a result of the fundraiser.

“We were able to buy eggs, sausage, and boxes of cereal,” she said. “People donated hams. It was wonderful.”

Following that success, Dillon is hoping to provide similar meals to help bridge the gap of food insecurity during upcoming spring and Easter breaks.

“We are taking care of the whole family,” she said. “And we really hope we can provide enough food again for spring break and Easter break.”

Cash donations are very helpful, as they allow Dillon and her students to shop for the right balance of foods for the families served. And the students, with a little help from Dillon, do the shopping themselves. Traveling to local food stores, they pick out the food, pay the bill with the donated funds, sack the groceries, and return to school with the food waiting to be distributed to families in need every Friday. 

By shopping themselves, students are clearly learning the value of a dollar — and what it really takes to feed a family in today’s world.

Students also help weekly at the Holy Trinity food pantry. Two students go each Wednesday to package and sort food, bag groceries for customers or do whatever is needed to keep the busy food pantry stocked and operating.

Part of the goal is also to educate families served in the weekend food program about the Holy Trinity food pantry, which is open every Wednesday afternoon at the Corpus Christi site. It seems fitting that the site named Corpus Christi — Body of Christ — is still feeding God’s people.

“We always encourage our families to use the Holy Trinity food pantry,” Dillon added.

Eligibility for the weekend food program is determined by income and eligibility forms are available at the elementary office at St. Edmond. Help is available to apply and much of the program operates on an honor system.

“It’s all confidential,” Dillon said. “We don’t ever need to know the families we are helping. If you think you need food, you can have it.”

A weekend without a lot of food in the house, is a weekend where stress and anxiety can rapidly brew. Helped by their fellow students at St. Edmond’s, these kids and their families can relax just a bit over the weekend, and enjoy some food that comes with no strings attached, just a helping hand from right within their own community.

Berglund is a freelance writer based in Dayton. She is a member of Holy Trinity Parish in Webster County.