BBP News
The Brookings Backpack Project is seeking a Volunteer Coordinator. The Brookings Backpack Project assists children in Brookings, SD, who may not have enough food to eat at home by providing them with easy-to-prepare weekend meals and snacks throughout the year.
The position of Volunteer Coordinator is a part-time contractor position. To download a copy of the Volunteer Coordinator job description, please click here.
To download an application, please click here.
To apply for the position, submit an application and resume by February 17, 2012 either electronically to bbpinbox@gmail.com, or through the mail to Brookings Backpack Project, c/o BUCC, 828 8th St S, Brookings, SD 57006. The application is also available at Job Service and some area churches. If any additional assistance is needed, please contact April Flemming at kayeflemming@yahoo.comor 605-693-4611.
On October 6, 2011 on Inside KELOland, hunger needs in the Sioux Empire were discussed. The purpose of the Sioux Falls Backpack program is the same as that of our local Brookings Backpack Project. For the first time ever, the Sioux Falls Backpack program had to scale back the number of backpacks distributed due to a decrease in funding and donations.
The number of Brookings students participating in BBP continues to rise. As of October 2011, the total is 392. By comparison, BBP began serving 80 children in September of 2009. By the end of the first school year, in May of 2010, we were serving 253. During the 2010-2011 school year, BBP served 328 children.
Brookings Backpack Project does not ever want to have to turn down a child from receiving a food bag. Please remember BBP, especially as we head into the winter months with increased heat and fuel costs for families.
You can view the archived video file at: http://www.keloland.com/videoarchive/index.cfm?VideoFile=111006backpack.
According to a recent 60 Minutes segment, the poverty rate for American children will soon hit 25%. These children, the report noted, will be "the largest American generation to be raised in hard times since the Great Depression.”
Feeding America notes that the 8 million jobs lost between December, 2007, and June, 2009, (not to mention losses since then) have dissolved the line that may have existed between middle-income and low-income individuals and families. Hard-working Americans who had been comfortably middle-class saw their savings dwindle, debts default and homes foreclose. Entire families were forced to live in shelters, motels and even their cars. Many of them turned to food banks for emergency food assistance for the first time in their lives.
Hunger is a painful reality for a growing number of American families, including right here in Brookings. Please continue to support BBP, the Food Pantry, Feeding Brookings, the Harvest Table and Angel Food Ministries as together we continue to try to ease the hunger of local residents. But let's also give serious thought to what must be done to alleviate the underlying poverty in our community, of which hunger is but one symptom.
BBP is seeking a new Project Coordinator. This will be a part-time contractor position (average hours per week: 25). Until now, the Project Coordinator has been a position shared by two volunteers, Susan Rosen and Phyllis Cole-Dai. The tremendous growth of the program's mission, including its expansion in 2011 to a year-round operation, was a deciding factor in the organization's decision to hire part-time staff. In addition to the Project Coordinator, the positions of Food Coordinator (10 hours a week) and Volunteer Coordinator (5 hours) are also transitioning from volunteer to paid staff. The persons currently serving in those capacities have agreed to remain on board.
To download a copy of the Project Coordinator job description, please click here.
To download an application, please click here. Hard copies of the application are also available at Job Service and some area churches.
To apply for the position,
submit an application and resume by 1 March 2011 either electronically to bbpinbox@gmail.com or through the mail to Brookings Backpack
Project, c/o BUCC, 828 8th St S, Brookings, SD 57006.
If any additional
assistance is needed, please contact Phyllis Cole-Dai at coledai@brookings.net or 605-692-7001.
The number of Brookings students participating in BBP continues to rise. As of January 14, the total was 307. By comparison, the number of students served all last school year was 253.While the number of children being fed is much higher this academic year, it still represents less than half the number of children who are enrolled in the free and reduced school lunch program. Enrollment in that federally-funded program is regarded as a strong indicator of the level of need within the community for BBP's services. "We still have a lot of work to do, getting the word out that BBP is here and willing to help," observes Susan Rosen, BBP co-coordinator. "We also need to reassure folks that there's no shame in accepting help when you're struggling. That's what the community is here for--to care."
BBP is not the only food assistance organization in Brookings that is seeing significantly higher numbers this year. At monthly "food roundtable" meetings, representatives not only from BBP but also the Food Pantry, Harvest Table, Feeding Brookings and Angel Food Ministries regularly share troubling reports of the numbers of community members who are struggling to meet their hunger needs.
