ROTM: Feeding Hungry Children

The clay shooting sports events, Shooting Hunger, has raised enough money to provide more than two million meals to feed Tennesseans in need. Shooting Hunger is an event put on by the Tennessee Farm Bureau, Farm Credit Mid-America, Rural First, and the Tennessee Farmers Co-op. In recent years the money raised has been distributed to all 95 counties to go towards the backpack program, which sends food home with kids in need. Jessica Johnson coordinates the backpack program in Rutherford County. She says without the money from Shooting Hunger, kids would go hungry.



Thomas Capps
Joining us now on Root of The Matter is Jessica Johnson with Rutherford County Schools. And Jessica, you're here at the Rutherford County Farm Bureau today and y'all are doing something really cool. Y'all are packaging food for the backpack program here. And of course, Farm Bureau, and really a lot of different ag organizations have been a big help with that over the last couple of years with the shooting hunger event. Tell me a little bit about what exactly y'all are doing here and really what the backpack program is.

Jessica Johnson
Okay. So, again, like you said, thank you, first of all for having me. So my name is Jessica Johnson and I am with the homeless education program with Rutherford County Schools. Currently, we have over 1,300 students that are considered homeless in our community that attends Rutherford County Schools. And our backpack program gives food to our students, so they have food to go home with for the weekend, we know that our students because the majority of their food, from our schools, breakfast and lunch, and we know that when they're not with us, their nutrition is often not available. So the backpack program is crucial to keeping our kids fed and shooting hunger. We've been working together and continue to work together and if they just help us keep our kids keep their nutrition in their bodies in so we know that they're going to be taken care of over the weekend. It's just we're grateful for this partnership that we have with shooting hunger.

Thomas Capps
So that number again, how many homeless students do you have?

Jessica Johnson
Over 1,300. That students living in motels, some living in cars, some living in shelters, transitional housing, and just moving from home to home?

Thomas Capps
I mean, that's just an unbelievable, really, I mean, you know, we we don't really imagine that we know the need is there. But 1300. That's, that's a big number. And with without this program, as you mentioned, a lot of these kids wouldn't have anything to eat, right?

Jessica Johnson
You're correct. So our numbers are up by 300 of this time last year. And the food that they we give them is easy to prepare food, so things that they can put in the microwave, because we know that you know we even have preschool students that are in this program, and they might not have someone at home that can assist them. So we want to make sure that whatever we're giving them is meeting their hunger need is somewhat nutritious, and it's I can prepare, so guess our backpack meals also fits in a backpack. So that's where the backpack meal comes from. So we either slip it in their backpack, so it's, it's a private situation, not everyone knows what's going on at their home where they're staying, or it's in a bag, so nobody knows what's in it.

Thomas Capps
That school will be out of session in another month or so is this something that you all are able to do year round? And how do you make that happen year round.

Jessica Johnson
So Rutherford County, my positions moving into a full year position, because like you said, students are hungry all year, it doesn't stop just because school is on. And so we have a lunch program where we have schools that are open for breakfast and lunch on the north and the south ends of the county, but students have to be able to get there. But we will also be giving food up during summer schools ...