There is something very wrong when hundreds of children arrive to school hungry every Monday morning, having not had enough to eat over the weekend. And yet empty bellies are a fact of life for more than 350 elementary school students in Indian River County. It’s a situation that a group of International Baccalaureate students at Sebastian River High School are determined to alleviate through a program called It’s in the Bag.
The program is managed by the students, who volunteer their time to organize and distribute weekend bags of nutritious food to students in need at seven of the 13 Indian River County School District’s elementary schools.
Susan Lovelace, SRHS International Baccalaureate program coordinator, founded program in 2010, basing it on one run by a friend at a middle school in Maryland.
“There they had a sixth-grade boy who was crying because he hadn’t eaten all weekend. That’s how it started,” she explains.
“When we started this six years ago, I had the kids pick which school and they chose Fellsmere,” says Lovelace. “I called Fellsmere and we had 15 kids. It wasn’t two weeks later that we needed another 15 and we were up to 50 by the end of the first year.”
In 2015 a generous donation from Orchid Island residents Joe and Cindy Scherpf greatly increased that number; they have continued their funding and involvement ever since.
The couple remembers visiting Treasure Coast Elementary School one Monday morning as children were returning to school after two days of being underfed.
“They stand by the barrel waiting for their school mates to walk up to throw away a half-eaten pancake and say to their school mates, ‘Can I have that?’ The kids literally lick the syrup off the plate, because they haven’t had any food from Friday at lunch,” says Joe Scherpf. “The government will feed the children breakfast and lunch five days a week, but it’s the weekends that there’s nothing there.”
Last year the program assisted more than 300 children at Citrus, Dodgertown, Fellsmere, Glendale, Indian River Academy, Pelican Island and Vero Beach Elementary Schools.
“Now they’re packing 365 bags today,” says Joe Scherpf, one day in November, watching as students made an assembly line to pack the food into plastic bags. They package every Wednesday and deliver to the schools Thursday for discrete distribution by teachers on Friday. When Hurricane Matthew was imminent, students packed on Tuesday to ensure the children were taken care of beforehand.
“The cafeteria workers, guidance counselors and teachers work together to identify students in need. We deliver to the school and the teachers kind of sneak them in to the kids’ backpacks,” says Lovelace. “We try to keep it as confidential as we can; we don’t know the names of any of the students.”
“The beauty of the program is that nobody can ask to be put on the program; the schools, teachers and administrators are the ones who come up with the list,” adds Cindy Scherpf.
When additional students are identified, Lovelace checks with Scherpf to ensure funding is available. In addition to the Scherpfs, major funding has come from the Rotary Club of Orchid Island and Holy Cross Church.
The all-volunteer program has no overhead and has very strong internal controls. The high school provides staging space and all the volunteers – even the students – pay for their own gas. Every possible resource is utilized, including Box Tops for Education, which are collected for reward coupons, and weekly breakfast bars and bread are donated by Publix and Bimbo Bakeries.
Joanne Holmes runs a similar program at SRHS called the Chum Bucket, which assists high school students in need, and coordinates weekly requirements with Lovelace. Holmes and Scherpf shop for groceries together every Monday at Sam’s Club, currently running up tabs of roughly $1,400 per week.
“Total purchases will be about $40,000 if we just have the number students that we have right now. Last year the number grew,” says Scherpf. Food purchases are charged to a credit card with a 4 percent return that is funneled directly back into the program.
“As a taxpayer you assume that there’s a safety net for children in need,” says Melanie Atkins, who manages a private guesthouse at Windsor Club and visited as students packed meals one afternoon. “That was the thing that surprised me the most, because I didn’t have children in the school system. When I discovered that there were children who were food insecure or even homeless, I was shocked. And that’s what made me delve a little bit deeper into what exactly is going on.”
Agreeing that most people don’t realize the severity of the situation, Lovelace adds, “I was talking to a group of people last night and they couldn’t believe that there were 85 homeless students at Sebastian River High School.”
“It’s astounding,” agrees Atkins. “I think what I admire about these two programs is the grassroots nature; the fact that there’s not a heavy administration to the programs. All monies collected are distributed with the need. That’s the most important thing.”
“I saw the effects the first week I was in the program,” says Cesar Munoz, who has been involved since his junior year and is currently president of It’s in the Bag. “I delivered and saw some of the kids who received the food. They were so excited.
“As president I just want to make sure that everything is running smoothly. I also want to make sure that this program lasts for a long time; I would love to expand it,” says Munoz, adding that to do so requires additional funding and student volunteers.
