Every weekend, close to 25 percent of Bulloch County children potentially go hungry. That many children live below the poverty level and are considered at-risk; some will have nothing to eat from Friday lunch at school until Monday breakfast. However, the combined efforts of local churches, civic organizations, Georgia Southern  University students and concerned citizens are ensuring more and more kids are fed.
    On Friday of each week, more than 350 children who qualify for free or reduced lunches at school take home bags of food — enough for the entire weekend. Tuna, pasta, raisins, peanut butter, crackers, cereal, Vienna sausages, pudding cups, milk, juice and often a sweet treat, are given to at-risk kids weekly.
    The program called Backpack Buddies began after Susan Allen, the Children’s Minister at Statesboro First Baptist Church, attended a conference with a focus on providing hope for the hungry. The pilot program began at Julia P. Bryant School that year, but quickly branched out to serve every elementary school in Bulloch.
    Churches like Eastern Heights, Grace Community Church, Pittman Park United Methodist, Friendship Baptist, Nevils United Methodist, Brooklet United Methodist, First Presbyterian, St. Matthew’s Catholic, Emit Grove Baptist, Statesboro First Methodist and Statesboro First Baptist form teams to prepare packs of food weekly.
    Marilyn Murkison and her husband, Gene, coordinate a team of about 20 workers each week at Pittman Park Church.
    “We have buyers, inventory workers, those who pack, those who deliver to the school. Every Wednesday, five or six of us pack bags, assembly-line style. Then on Friday mornings, the bags are taken to Langston Chapel Elementary, the school we serve. “
    Murkison said an added blessing to their endeavors has been the help of college students from Trinity Episcopal Campus Ministries.
    “Several college kids come faithfully, every week, to help us in any way that they can. We consider their help invaluable for us senior citizens.”
    At Brooklet United Methodist, a children’s mission group, called Godly Girls, often helps pack the bags with assistance from Liz Bland, organizer of the program at BUMC.
    Bland said, “Our church packs about 65 bags a week, serving Brooklet and Stilson schools. It’s a wonderful program that enables teachers to see improvement in the children. When kids get excited about a fruit cup, you know you’re doing something right.”
    Shawn Haralson, former principal at Julia P. Bryant and current principal at Portal Middle and High, said that a child who had formerly gotten in trouble on the bus most mornings, began to have a marked improvement in behavior.
    “We found that he was not getting anything to eat most nights of the week,” said Haralson. “After starting the backpack program, I saw his behavior do a 180.”
    Raina Mallard, counselor at Brooklet Elementary agreed.
    “Our children are truly appreciative of the food they receive. They smile and meet me when they see me coming down the hallway with my rolling cart of backpacks. This ministry is truly a blessing in the lives of these children.”
    Dr. Carolyn Vasilatos, Mattie Lively Elementary, said the children often ask her, “Is today the day we get our backpack?”
    Jennifer Cooper, teacher at Brooklet Elementary shared that one of her students began kindergarten as a disinterested student who didn’t interact or communicate with teachers or peers.
    Cooper said, “Upon receiving her first backpack of food, she yelled out, ‘This is mine? Hey guys, look at this! It’s got breakfast and stuff in it!’ She hugged the pack and showed it to everyone she saw in the hall.”
    The program is far-reaching, touching the lives of those who prepare the packs, as well as those who receive them. Haralson once explained the program to a grandmother raising her three grandchildren, telling her that three backpacks full of food would come home each Friday.
    Haralson remembered, “God really touches your heart when a 70-year-old woman is on the line crying so hard she can’t breathe, telling me ‘thank you’ over and over again because she knew God would answer her prayers!”