We're passionate about giving back to the Sanford/Lee County community. Recently, our team collected food to support the local BackPack Pals program.
"We are so thankful for the partnerships of business in our community to meet the needs of the Christians United Outreach Center (CUOC),” said Teresa Dew Kelly, the director of the non-profit CUOC, which runs the BackPack Pals program. “Assisting over 750 families per month and providing over 10,000 backpacks of food for weekends to students of the Lee County School System could not be accomplished without the support of Static Control and others who organize food drives and make donations to our agency. We look forward to many more years of partnership to meet the needs in Lee County.”
In Lee County, more than 68% of children receive free or reduced lunches in the school system. Over the weekend, many of these children are food insecure. BackPack Pals provides weekend bags of food to children to provide nutrition to students who had been identified to have little or nothing to eat on the weekends. More than 300 children in Lee Country received these bags in the 2016-2017 school year, and the program has expanded this year to include more area schools.
In total, our employees filled nine 45-gallon toner drums with kid-friendly foods such as spaghetti and mac and cheese.
About BackPack Pals
Children cannot be successful in school if they are hungry, or worried about food for the weekend. BackPack Pals alleviates some of the stress these children face on Friday afternoon at school. Each school year, BackPack Pals sends food home with students based on input from guidance counselors, teachers and school administration. The program runs for approximately 40 weeks during the school year (from September to May) and also provides extra food during long school holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas and Spring Break. Volunteers pack bags for each school with 10-12 nonperishables items with kid-friendly lunch and breakfast items. After all bags are filled, volunteers deliver the bags to each school; each bag is distributed on Friday before the students leave school for the weekend. To learn more, contact CUOC at (919) 774-8485.