‘We do what we can’

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

Food insecurity is a terrible thing, but it’s especially heartbreaking when it involves children. 

For the past 15 years, the nonprofit organization Food for our Children has pledged to end childhood hunger in Bonner County. Through its Weekend Food Bag program — which ensures school children receive meals to take home for non-school days — and subsidizing the free and reduced lunch programs at schools, the organization has made real progress in tackling local food insecurity. However, the nonprofit recently sounded the alarm, noting that demand for food has taken a sharp uptick just since last year.

“Well over 20% of the elementary school population is now wanting weekend food bags,” co-founder and board member Dennis Pence told the Reader. “That’s a 15% increase from the numbers we normally see. It’s way over last year. We’re seeing something endemic. I was hoping in the fall when we saw the increase it was just a bump or a spike, but it has maintained for the food bank as well.”

Fellow board member Jamie Schlehuber put even finer numbers on the problem.

“Right now we’re packing 560 bags every week,” said Schlehuber, a retired school teacher who began volunteering with Food for our Children after relocating to Bonner County four years ago. “This time last year we were packing 350 bags, and that number was steady for a long time, so it really has increased over this past year.”

Courtesy photo.

Because of the increase in kids receiving assistance, Food for our Children is experiencing a significant shortfall in finances. Pence estimates the organization needs about $50,000 extra to handle the weekend food bags.

He isn’t certain what factors have contributed to the increase in need, but Pence speculates that higher food prices coupled with rising living and housing costs haven’t helped the situation.

“You’ve got this unusual barbell in Bonner County where you have people with real means — the ones retiring from the coast into million-dollar homes — and then you have a very large percentage of people often living outside of the city who have to make decisions like, ‘Do I pay the rent or propane bill or groceries?’” Pence said. “It’s good to give clarity: We have real estate values like Sun Valley, yet we have about a third of the population here experiencing some food insecurity, which is sure not the case in Sun Valley.”

Pence modeled Food for our Children on the original “Backpack Program,” started in 1995 by a school nurse in Arkansas who noticed students were suffering from hunger. In response to her concerns, the local food bank started providing hungry kids with groceries in backpacks. The program caught on and spread throughout the country.

“What we do is not unique, but we think we do it better, because we add fresh fruit as well,” Pence said, noting that the local organization is the only one in the Northwest to do so.

Food for our Children purchases the food bags from Spokane-based Second Harvest, which prepacks shelf-stable food in the bags. Then, Pence and volunteers gather at the Bonner Community Food Bank to open and inspect every bag, ensuring the food isn’t past its due date and the packaging remains intact.

At that point, Food for our Children adds two apples — one for each weekend day. Then students take the food bags home with them.

The program doesn’t require income verification and is open to anyone who wants to participate — it only requires the approval of a parent or guardian, with forms sent out at the beginning of the school year with other paperwork.

Pence said his organization rarely gets political pushback, as is sometimes the case with food assistance programs.

“We use no federal money, no state money, no county money and parental approval is required,” he said. “So many of the decisive issues go away. We’re just a conduit for people to buy food at wholesale prices to give to local kids.”

Last year, California became the first state to implement a Universal Meals Program providing breakfast and lunch not just for needy children, but all children each school day.

“We’re never going to see that in Idaho,” Schlehuber said. “It’s just not going to happen.”

She said a big part of overcoming that reality is education.

“It’s about communication with our community. They should have an understanding about what’s actually happening in the schools. Kids are not getting fed,” Schlehuber said. 

“It doesn’t matter where you are politically, you’re still hungry,” she added. “[H]ungry kids can’t learn. If they can’t learn, they don’t get an education and don’t become working members of society. It’s a core need, so in order to create a successful student and a successful member of our community, we need to address this problem. If they’re hungry, they don’t care about anything else. It’s hard to do math when you’re hungry.”

In addition to the weekend food bags, the organization helps subsidize the free and reduced lunch program with cash to help ensure the significant population that falls just outside the gap of coverage continues to get the opportunity to eat.

“During COVID, everybody got breakfast and lunch at the schools,” Schlehuber told the Reader. “When COVID funding was taken away, there was a gap between what people qualified for and what people really need, so kids that used to qualify for free and reduced lunch programs no longer qualified. That’s where our subsidy program comes in, and we cover 10% to 15% of those who really needed it but didn’t qualify.”

The subsidizing has increased Food for our Children’s already steep $50,000 shortfall by an additional $20,000, leading the organization to ask for help from local businesses and community members so that the program continues its mission to end childhood hunger.

“I love the philosophy of our program because 100% of funds go toward food,” Schlehuber said. “We don’t have overhead, we don’t have an executive director, we don’t have an office, the board is all volunteer.”

“If you give us a check for $20, $20 goes to buy food,” Pence added. “I think it’s unique in the county and almost nationwide.”

Operating entirely on donations from the community, Food for our Children’s large Wine Gala in September serves as the main fundraiser of the year. Those wishing to help the organization’s mission can visit foodforourchildren.org or send donations to: Food for our Children, P.O. Box 1867, Sandpoint, ID 83864.

In addition, businesses that would like to help can sponsor an individual school to pay for all or some of the food assistance programs offered by Food for our Children.

“In talking to the schools, I hear over and over again about how parents truly appreciate what we’re able to do and help them out,” Schlehuber said. “That’s awesome to hear. We do what we can.”