Melissa Perry, Founder of the Hodge Strong Foundation, partnered with the Northeast Louisiana Food Bank two years ago to help meet some of the most basic needs for some of Jackson Parish School Board’s most at-risk students. The funds the Hodge Strong Foundation raises goes towards providing weekend “backpack meals.” For many participating students, they look forward to Friday afternoons when they receive a gallon-sized ziplock bag of food in their backpacks to help supplement any meals their families may not have the means to provide over the weekend.

The school system provides students with breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday, but there are some students who need additional meal support on the weekends. For many reasons, the requests for weekend backpack meals at all schools in the district have surpassed the currently available number of backpack meals that are funded. The funding is currently able to provide 112 meals for Jackson Parish students, but there are approximately 150 students that qualify and are in need. It costs $200-$240 per year, per student, to fund the food support for our students. This program needs community funding in order to provide more weekend food support for our students. We are asking those in our community that are able to please donate to this worthy cause; this is for our children.

If you are willing and able to donate funds to the Hodge Strong Foundation, monetary donations can be submitted to Jonesboro State Bank, in Jonesboro, Louisiana. If you have any questions, please contact Melissa Perry at Melissa.perry@westrock.com. Thank you to those that have previously donated– you are the reason we can continue to provide this service to our students in our communities.