KINGWOOD — More than 60 4-H campers and council members met at the 4-H camp near Bruceton Mills this week to pack 1,000 bags of food for Food for Preston’s Backpack Program.
The program provides meals for area students in need.
David Hartley, WVU Extension agent and 4-H camp director for Preston County, said 4-H partnered with Food for Preston as one of its community service projects.
“We are happy to do this project because it helps the county,” he said. “Last year, we did a smaller project that filled about 300 bags of food. This year we thought we would go bigger.”
Tammy Laney, coordinator of Food for Preston, said the 2022 4-H project was such a great success she knew immediately it would become an annual event.
Laney said Food for Preston provides the food for the project and volunteers pack the bags. She said each bag contains a mix of granola bars, pasta, soup, pudding cups, sunflower seeds and more.
Hartley said one of the reasons the project was chosen was to teach kids they can give back and help the community.
“It’s a way to teach them that anyone can make a difference,” he said.
“The backpack program is also a partnership between Preston County Schools and Food for Preston, serving weekly weekend food to students year-round,” Laney said. “Positive partnerships, faithful donations and enthusiastic volunteers working together is how we fight hunger in Preston County.”
During a previous interview about the program, Laney explained the concept.
“We started the Backpack Program in 2011 to provide meals for homeless students, then counselors and teachers added to the list because we couldn’t go by the number of free school meals like other counties do,” she said.
Once a year, Food for Preston holds Michelle Wolford’s Pack the Bus to collect food for the program. Pack the Bus was started by the Kingwood Rotary Club in 2013 at the urging of Wolford, a reporter for The Dominion Post and president of Kingwood Rotary. Wolford died of pancreatic cancer in July 2015.
Anyone interested in volunteering or donating to Food For Preston, Pack the Bus, or the Backpack Program can do so by calling 304-379-3519 or emailing coordinator@foodforpreston.org. Checks can be mailed to: Tammy Laney P.O. Box 1175, Kingwood, WV 26537
For more information about 4-H call 304-329-1395 or go to https//extension.wvu.edu/preston4-H.
