May 26, 2014 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – Alpha Natural Resources provided a grant to the Community Foundation of Greene County to support the Greene County Weekend Food Program.

The grant will help provide packages of food for elementary children in each of the five school districts in the county.

“Hunger relief and helping our community’s children are key areas of focus for Alpha Natural Resources,” said Karen Zalom, manager of human resources for the company. “This grant allows us to give back to Greene County and help children have access to healthy, nutritious meals at a time when they need it the most.”

The Weekend Food Program provides a packet of child-friendly food items to help supplement weekend meals for a small number of students who are selected by the school social workers, food service staff and/or other teachers and administrators, based on family circumstances and need.

The grant, like all contributions to the Weekend Food Program, will be used to purchase food for the weekend food packages. Most of the food supplies are purchased through the schools’ food service system to provide more nutritious meals at a greatly reduced cost. The food packets are prepared by volunteers and then distributed confidentially to the children by a school social worker or teacher.

In 2012, Alpha Natural Resources provided a start-up grant for the program, which began with just approximately 12 children in Carmichaels School District and 24 children in West Greene School District. Now, all five school districts in Greene County have a Weekend Food Program in their elementary schools serving about 140 children across the county.

“This is isn’t a handout program for every student,” said Bettie Stammerjohn, executive director of the Community Foundation of Greene County. “In fact, only a very small number of children in each school are invited to participate. It really is based on need.”

Even with the discounted pricing the food service programs use to purchase the food, each weekly package costs an average of five dollars per child each week.

“That’s what makes this grant from Alpha Natural Resources so important,” said Stammerjohn. “Private contributions like this grant are needed to purchase the food because the costs are not covered by the school budget.”

The Greene County Weekend Food Program (also known as a Backpack program) exists because of the Greene County Food Security Partnership, a broad community collaboration to address food security needs in Greene County.

The Community Foundation of Greene County is acting as the fiscal agent for the Weekend Food programs, although each school district operates its program independently of the other schools. “All of the contributions received for these projects are distributed as grants to the school districts involved in the program,” said Stammerjohn. “The grant from Alpha Natural Resources has made a big difference in making sure this program succeeds in Greene County.”