Odessa FBLA students visit Second Harvest food bank

The Odessa High School FBLA chapter formed a partnership with 2nd Harvest Food Bank for the purpose of learning business skills from business professionals and applying that knowledge to benefit our local community. From this partnership, the FBLA chapter has implemented the Back Pack program. This program provides a backpack full of non-perishable food to 35 Odessa students each Friday to eat over the weekend. The food is packaged by Second Harvest Food Bank and distributed each month.

The success of this program can be attributed to many people. The first challenge was to find community members and organizations to sponsor each child. The cost to provide one child a backpack for 35 weeks is approximately $150. FBLA sent out letters throughout the summer asking for sponsors. We are very thankful to the private individuals, community organizations, church groups and school staff who committed to sponsoring the program. Picking up the food in Ritzville and delivering it to Odessa each month has been completed by Stan and Debby Dammel, Pat and Laura Estes, Pastor Jon Hayashi, Pastor Tim Hauge and Riley Allen who have volunteered their time and vehicles. Distributing the backpacks each week is handled by school personnel and student helpers. The backpacks were purchased with a grant from Wal-Mart, written by the FBLA chapter.

FBLA members traveled to Second Harvest Food Bank in January to assist in packing the food kits used for the program. Each week, over 400 students in eastern Washington participate in the backpack program. FBLA students were given mountains of juice, milk, cereal, fruit cups, cheese and ravioli to put together for each kit. Over 1000 kits were ready for backpacks thanks to the efforts of the Odessa High School FBLA.