By KIM HORNER / The Dallas Morning News

Hundreds of kids eagerly line up in the James Bowie Elementary School gym after lunch every Friday, wearing their blue backpacks open against their stomachs.

One by one, physical education teacher Sharon Foster fills each of their packs with a plastic grocery bag full of food. The milk, cereal, crackers and other nutritious snacks come through the North Texas Food Bank and are intended to keep the kids from going hungry over the weekend, when they can’t rely on school breakfasts or lunches.”Thank you, coach,” they say as they zip up their packs.

The program, called Food 4 Kids, distributes more than 5,000 snack-loaded packs each week at 269 schools from Cedar Hill to Denton. The Dallas-based hunger-relief organization is working to expand to provide 6,000 backpacks weekly by the summer.

The agency pays for the food and backpacks through private donations, including contributions from The Dallas Morning News Charities. The food bank is one of 22 nonprofit agencies that rely on donations from The Charities. Donations to the fund drive specifically buy food for the packs, at a cost of $5 a week.

The food bank created Food 4 Kids in 2004 because of concerns about children not having enough to eat at home. Texas has the highest rate of child hunger in the nation, according to a report by Feeding America, a national hunger-relief organization that found that one of every four children does not have consistent access to food. North Texas Food Bank officials have received reports from schools of children eating food off the cafeteria floors and out of the garbage.

The charity’s nutrition experts train teachers to look for other signs of chronic hunger, including rushing through cafeteria lines and asking for food, said Jan Pruitt, the agency’s chief executive officer. There also are physical signs such as chronically cracked lips, spoon-shaped fingernails and puffiness, she said.

Teachers found that some of the kids they pegged as having short attention spans or behavioral problems actually were hungry. The children don’t fit most people’s images of someone suffering from hunger.

“Thank goodness their teachers are watching and identifying them,” Ms. Pruitt said. “These are kids that you would see anywhere and you would never in your mind go, ‘There’s a hungry child.’ “
Demand rising

In addition to the backpacks, the food bank supplies food for 38,000 children every week to area food pantries, where their parents pick up free staple groceries. The demand for groceries from area food banks has risen 25 percent in recent months because of the difficult economy, Ms. Pruitt said. That has led to a drop in donations to the agency despite greater than ever need.

The Food 4 Kids packs are loaded with easy-to-fix snacks including peanut butter and jelly, pudding and fruit cups, because some kids spend time at home alone while their parents work. Some schools have unique ways of distributing the packs to protect the recipients’ privacy, such as calling kids to a “gold star” club meeting.

At James Bowie in north Oak Cliff, more than half of the school’s 650 students qualify for the program, so stigma isn’t as much of an issue.

“The kids look forward to it all week,” Ms. Foster said. “They want it; they need it.”

The school has a large population of children living in low-income homes. Most students at the school receive free or reduced-price lunches.

It’s the second year that Food 4 Kids has been offered at Bowie. Principal Abril Rivera said the program and other hunger-relief efforts at the school have helped children focus on their lessons and do their homework at night. She said the school received a higher accountability rating this year, going from acceptable to recognized, which she believes is attributable to Food 4 Kids and two other programs: Hunger Busters and Taco Bueno, which provide meals after school.

“When you’re hungry, you can’t think of anything but being hungry,” she said. “It’s been very helpful. The kids love it. They’re dying to come get their snacks.”

‘This helps a lot’

Rachel Gonzales, a teaching assistant at the school, said she’s grateful for the food. She has five children at Bowie who receive the backpacks and especially like the milk.

“We can barely make ends meet buying groceries, without snacks,” she said. “This helps a lot.”

Since 1986, The Charities has raised more than $18.5 million for area nonprofit agencies that serve the homeless and hungry. The 2008-09 fundraising campaign runs through Jan. 31, though donations are accepted anytime. The News pays all administrative costs, so 100 percent of donations goes to the agencies.

You can make a difference. Visit ntfb.org.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Food stamps, the main U.S. antihunger program which helps the needy buy food, set a record in September as more than 31.5 million Americans used the program — up 17 percent from a year ago, according to government data.

The number of people using food stamps in September surpassed the previous peak of 29.85 million seen in November 2005 when victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma received emergency benefits, said Jean Daniel of the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service.

September’s tally — the latest month available — was also boosted by hurricane and flood aid, Daniel said on Wednesday.

But anti-hunger groups said the economic downturn is the main reason behind the higher figures.

“It’s a disturbing trend,” said Ellen Vollinger, legal director with the Food Research and Action Center. She said she expects more people will turn to food stamps as unemployment figures rise and the economy remains weak.

One in 10 Americans were participating in the food stamp program as of September, said Dottie Rosenbaum, analyst with Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank.

That’s approaching the all-time high of 10.5 percent of the population that used the program in 1994, and is similar to levels seen in the early 1980s, she said.

States that have seen a drop in job numbers and increase in home foreclosures such as Florida and Nevada also have seen a marked increase in food stamp use, Rosenbaum said.

Food banks are struggling to meet increased requests for food, said Maura Daly of Feeding America, a network of food banks.

“The tough economic time that our nation is facing is having a tremendous impact on the level of food assistance needed across the country,” Daly said.

On average, people who used food stamps received $100 per month in benefits in September. That increased slightly in October to account for higher food prices, but hunger groups said the benefits still don’t go far enough at a time of high food prices and home heating costs.

Last month, the USDA said 36.2 million Americans or 11 percent of households struggle to get enough food to eat, and one-third of them had to sometimes skip or cut back on meals.

Hunger groups want Congress and the new administration to increase food stamp benefits as part of an economic stimulus package they hope will come in early 2009.

The benefits go directly to people who spend it at local grocery stores, supporting businesses and jobs, said Vollinger of the Food Research and Action Center.

“They (the benefits) don’t sit in a pocket,” she said, pointing to USDA estimates that $5 in food stamp spending generates $9 in economic activity.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by David Gregorio)

(roberta.rampton@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: roberta.rampton.reuters.com@reuters.net; 202 898 8376))