Oglethorpe custodian averted train wreck
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July 7, 2022 | AppenMedia.com | An Appen Media Group Publication | Ser ving the community since 1976
Nonprofit prepares for school year By SYDNEY DANGREMOND sydney@appenmedia.com DUNWOODY, Ga. — Before the COVID-19 pandemic, 1 in 6 Georgia children were food insecure, according to Feeding America, a national organization that tracks childhood hunger. Children experiencing food insecurity are lacking basic nutrition and are not sure where their next meal will come from. They are often receiving two meals a day from their schools, but on the weekends, food can be harder to come by. Ronald and Samra Robbins launched Backpack Buddies in 2011 to help eliminate the issue. While they were serving as board members at their synagogue in Savannah, they learned about rampant food insecurity among children in their area. Joined by four friends, they began by packing weekend meals for eight local children. It took off from there. By the time they moved to Dunwoody in 2017, they were feeding 150 children weekly at four different schools in Savannah. Now, Backpack Buddies of Metro Atlanta, with newly minted nonprofit status, is serving 1,000 children each week through a network of more than a dozen synagogues, churches and community organizations. They are seeking the support of local officials and residents to prepare for the coming school year. The groups partner with school counselors, social workers and principals to identify students in need. Then
they purchase and package food which is distributed to the children on Fridays. Originally, the six weekend meals were sent home with the kids in backpacks, hence the name Backpack Buddies, but over the course of the pandemic, the organization opted to send the food home in disposable packaging to limit the spread of germs. Each child’s weekend food package includes five proteins, two vegetables, two fruits, two servings of juice, two breakfast items and three snacks, totaling 16 single-serve non-perishable food items. The costs of this food and the space it takes up, can limit local organizations in their ability to feed children regularly, Ronald Robbins said. “So, we thought, ‘What if we can eliminate the space issue by doing just-in-time inventory?’” Enter Backpack Buddies of Metro Atlanta’s new storefront and beta program. In early February, BPBMA moved into a storefront in Williamsburg in Dunwoody between the UPS store and E. 48th Street Market. The site provides a central loca-
See MEALS, Page 13 SYDNEY DANGREMOND/APPEN MEDIA
Samra and Ronald Robbins hold hands in front of Backpack Buddies of Metro Atlanta’s mission and vision statements in their Dunwoody storefront April 22. The pair brought the organization to Dunwoody in 2017 which now feeds 1,000 children weekend meals every week.
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