By Roslyn Ryan
Editor

or most Powhatan kids, chasing away hunger pangs on a lazy Saturday is as simple as opening the fridge. For children in families struggling to make ends meet, however, it can be a very different story.

According to Powhatan School officials, hunger is a very real issue among the student populations of the county’s elementary schools. Dozens of children in the county, they say, have had the experience of leaving school on Friday afternoon and not being able to eat again until they return to school Monday morning.

To Bobby and Brenda Fulcher, owners of Aerations Plus, this is simply unacceptable. Together with a group of concerned residents, the Fulchers have started a program to help provide two days a week worth of nutritious, easy-to-prepare meals and snacks for county school children to take home on Fridays.

Bobby Fulcher says he first came up with the idea for the project after learning about a similar program while attending Rotary Club convention in South Boston. He realized that while programs existed to help children in urban areas get enough to eat, many of them did not extend out into rural areas like Powhatan.

“Our initial target had been to get the program going in 2012,” said Bobby, but, once they realized how many children were in need of assistance in Powhatan, “we couldn’t wait.” Rusty Gates, who now serves as the group’s president, and Scott Stovall of Cowan Gates, PC volunteered legal services to get the group set up and suddenly, a bit sooner than they’d planned, the Fulchers were up and running.

A corner of the Aerations Plus office is now piled with boxes of crackers, bags of fruit snacks and pop-top cans of veggies. Every Friday, between 20 and 30 red satchels full of this food is sent to the children who need it (teachers and guidance counselors have been tapped to help identify the children who receive the bags, which are placed in coat closets and cubbyholes while the kids are at recess.)

While getting an effort like Backpacks of Love off the ground has not been easy, the Fulchers say they have been thrilled with what the program has been able to accomplish so far. When it comes to the obstacles, “You do what you do and you find a way,” said Brenda, who serves as the organization’s secretary.

Others have stepped in to help as well: a group of county Boy Scouts will soon construct a pantry to store food donations, which residents have brought by the armload. In December, Powhatan’s Premiere Dance Studio donated an incredible $1300 in proceeds from their winter fundraiser to the program.

To Brenda, the enthusiasm with wuth the program has been embraced has been truly heartwarming. She and Bobby talk often about the possibility of expanding the program to other schools and perhaps finding a way to help children in the summer months.
“We’re still trying to figure out where this can go,” she said, “but we are definitely growing.”

Donations to backpacks of Love, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, are accepted at Aerations Plus, 3035 Lower Hill Road (off Route 60 behind Dinwiddie’s). For more information on the effort, please visit www.backpacks-of-love.org.