Circling a short row of tables a few dozen times each Thursday afternoon, it only took Chase Corbett a small amount of time to get the hang of things.
“I think over the years it gets easier, but it is definitely not something that is simple to do your first time around,” said Corbett, who’s about midway through his senior year at Saratoga Springs High School. Along with other volunteers, Corbett comes to the basement of St. Clement’s Church to help meet a need that’s growing around Saratoga Springs.
What You Need To Know
- Each week, volunteers with the SNACpack Program send close to 170 bags of food to the homes of children in the Saratoga Springs City School District battling food insecurity
- Volunteers say since the pandemic started, demand for the program has nearly doubled
- Teachers now deliver food directly to students’ homes
"It’s mind-boggling, especially during quarantine," Corbett said. “Our food numbers have almost doubled. We have 150 different bags of food we are packing each week.”
With some of the food going to families and some going to individuals, the volunteers fill close to a total of 170 paper bags, with enough food to ensure about 250 children in the Saratoga Springs City School District don’t go hungry over the weekend, when they don’t have access to school meals.
“It feels wonderful,” said Julie Cash, who has volunteered since the program started. “You feel like this is a great community, but you want to give back, and it’s great that we have the opportunity to give back.”
Short for Saratoga Nutrition Assistance for Children, the SNACpack Program was started by elementary school teacher Karey Trimmings six years ago after an unexpected chain of events led her family to adopt one of her daughter’s classmates.
“I’m a teacher, I am a mom, and some red flags were going up as to the fact that he looked very thin, undernourished and kind of unhealthy,” Trimmings said.
After learning that he often went full weekends without a healthy meal, she and her husband set out to help all of the kids in the community living in the same dire circumstance.
“I grew up in Saratoga. I’m a teacher in this district, and I have to say until he came into our family, we were not aware of this level of poverty that exists in every community - and right here in Saratoga,” Trimmings said.
Before the pandemic, the bags of food were discretely handed out at school, allowing teachers to check in with each student. These days, a procession of teachers rolls up to the back of the church, where volunteer John Roessner fills their trunks so the meals can be delivered directly to the students’ homes.
“There’s a lot of food insecurity, and everybody thinks of Saratoga as an affluent area, but there’s so much need and this is a great program to fill that need,” said Roessner, whose wife is a teacher in the district and helped Trimmings launch SNACpack.
The program costs a little more than $1,000 per week to operate. With space for supplies and volunteers limited, Trimmings says the best way to help out is with a financial donation.
“We can’t fix everything that is happening in homes, but this is one thing we can help with,” she said.
With demand nearly doubled since the pandemic began and children set to be out of school for more than a week during the holidays, volunteers like Corbett know their work is growing more important each day.
“My heart really goes out to all of the kids, and it's sad," Corbett said. "It feels really well to know that we can do our best to give everybody a meal for the weekend because it is not as easy for families to do it, especially over a time like right now during COVID-19.”
