"Brown County farmer Robert King has been selected as a $2,500 winner in America’s Farmers Grown Communities, sponsored by the Monsanto Fund. King selected Backpack Blessings to receive the donation.
A ceremony was held Monday, Feb. 24, at Mt. Nebo United Methodist Church, in Bethel, during which Backpack Blessings representatives, King and a Monsanto representative participated in a ceremonial check presentation.
“Backpack Blessings is truly a special group. It is wonderful to provide children with a backpack full of food, ” said King. “The bacpacks are filled with healthy foods. Sometimes the families struggle, and this is one way they know that the children are eating.”
Lots of local people work on these kinds of projects behind the scenes all the time since 2008. When DHL left their beautiful Airpark to the city, life became a lot more complicated for lots of local citizens. Things are a little better but we've never recovered and I doubt we ever will. We will have to change a lot of the things we do to fill these gaps.
Brown County was a more remote location for jobs like DHL but the rollover effect of closing such a huge local employer travelled easily 50 miles and beyond. My home county was always close to being or actually pegged an Appalachian County. It's been that way all of my lifetime and has gotten worse the past few years.
I applaud my farmer friends for giving more than just the precious commodities they produce.
That is just awesome.
Ed Winkle
Call me cynical, I think it's great to help the kids, but what is "healthy" with 4 different kinds of cheese and animal crackers and other snack junk food? Monsanto just appears to contribute to child obesity, which affects the most the segment of the population that they are targeting.
ReplyDeleteThey don't even mention health on their site, just "nutritious, childfriendly, and easy-to-prepare food." Apart from the one bag of oat meal, I don't see anything in this backpack that's not an instant snack: http://www.backpackblessings.org/BPImages/BPB5.jpg
I just hope this image is not representative and the parents know better and will use their SNAP money to buy actual fresh healthy unprocessed food. Maybe that's what Monsanto should work on first, educating these BB volunteers about child nutrition so they can assemble healthier backpacks, not just sugar, fat and starch.
I hear you on the diet controversy. I guess it is their prerogative to put whatever they want to in the backpacks if the sponsor pays for it and the child accepts it. I guess they didn't confer with Michele Obama who has changed the school lunch tray, now have they?
ReplyDeleteEd