Customer Care Director, Beverly Yopp recently had the pleasure of visiting with Shelly Kieweg at the Jacksonville, North Carolina CHEW “Packhouse” to present Shelly with a $10,000 donation from Pluris for the Onslow County children’s CHEW Program. As in each community Pluris serves, we are about giving back to the community.
Shelly is the Director of Community Impact at Jacksonville’s United Way and oversees the CHEW or Children Healthy Eating on the Weekend program which provides backpacks of food for children in Onslow County. The CHEW program works with each school’s social workers who distribute the backpacks to children who are at high risk of not eating when they are not in school.
The program currently has three hubs or “CHEW Packhouses”, one for the 3 Dixon Schools, one for 5 schools in the Richlands area, and one in Jacksonville that packs bags for 22 schools in the Jacksonville area.
Shelly will tell you she “wears many hats” with her job but is quick to admit the CHEW program is her “Baby” and what she is most passionate about. When you talk with Shelly it is evident that her passion for the CHEW program is from the heart and not just a part of her job.
It has only been in recent years that Shelly has been able to open up and share her story about growing up with her mom working three jobs trying to take care of five children by herself. Shelly is the fourth of five children and recalled an evening when her oldest sister came out of the kitchen crying. When Shelly asked what was wrong her sister held out a can of beans and said that was all there was to eat for the five of them. She said there were many days where she and her siblings went without eating so she knows firsthand the pain children feel from an empty stomach, stating “The pain from an empty stomach is a real physical pain; a pain that keeps you from being able to sleep at night or concentrate in school the next day. All you can think about is getting something to eat.”.
The day of Beverly’s visit was a “distribution” day and she was able to observe volunteers sorting and counting items for packing to be delivered to the schools. Volunteers were also helping with dating, sorting, shelving, and organizing food items that had been received. Shelly stressed how crucial volunteers are for the CHEW program to be able to complete all the tasks needed to get the food packed and distributed to the schools.
Beyond the ongoing need for more volunteers there is also an ongoing need for food and monetary donations to stock and maintain a supply of non-perishable food items. As we toured through the facility Shelly said, “as quickly as the shelves fill up, we are emptying them for the next round of packing”.
Each backpack has 12 items which include food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner plus a snack. For example, breakfast items may be a packet of grits, oatmeal or cereal, a pop tart, or maybe a breakfast bar. Lunch is usually soup and a fruit and dinner may be pasta or rice with some form of protein, such as beans, canned tuna, or chicken and a can of vegetables when available. A can of Chef Boyardee is sometimes an option. Snacks may be items such as pretzels, cheese crackers or cookies.
The cost to feed one child for the program is $9 a week and $432 for the year. And, in order to put a child in the CHEW program, the program has to be able to provide for the child the entire school year.
The Onslow County CHEW program provided backpacks for approximately 828 children for the 2019-2020 school year. The goal for the 2020-2021 school year is to provide backpacks to 900 children. For information on volunteering to help with the CHEW children’s program Shelly can be reached via email at [email protected] or by telephone at (910) 347-2646.
