Soup Bowl Fundraiser to aid Backpack Program

Busy hands have been hard at work crafting clay soup bowls in preparation for the upcoming Soup Bowl Fundraiser at the Presbyterian United Church of Christ (PUCC) in Aurora. Volunteers with the Hamilton County Backpack Program will provide a meal to collect donations for the organization’s mission of providing meals to students’ and their families each month. The event will take place Friday, March 22 between 11a.m. and 1:30p.m. at the church. 
“We know what the elementary schools get with breakfast and the kids are pretty much taken care of during the week,” Pat Pickering, co-founder of the program said, “but it’s during the weekend that we were concerned that maybe there’s some food insecurity and that’s why we started this program.
The other co-founders of the organization started in 2009 were Zandee Nelson, who had recently moved to California, and the late Mary Maul.
“Our first October, we had 13 backpacks to 13 families that were being provided for,” she explained. “Now we’re recording them every week and that ends up being about 187 people receiving a meal, breakfast and snack to cover their weekend needs.”
With the help of coordinators within the school system such as Paige McQuiston, who works as the outreach coordinator for Aurora Public Schools, the program is able to continuously provide for the students and every member of their families.
“(Paige) would let us know what their needs are,” Pickering said. “In a government program, it takes a long time to make a change, but with our Backpack Program we can know by Monday that they have an extra family or there’s a family that doesn’t feel like they need it anymore and we change on a dime.”
Over the 13 years of its existence, the program has gained several volunteers who either previously worked as teachers or had spouses who had been teachers.
“We have 13 awesome backpack crew members,” Pickering commented. “I never have any problems getting the gals to schedule time in their busy lives to come and fill the backpack bags.”
Another volunteer who has been helping out with the Backpack Program since the beginning is Beth Andrews who explained that the volunteers meet every five weeks to get the food packed for students and their families. She said initially it would take as long as two to three hours to match the food to the families each week.
“I was taking to Zandee and I think was doing something with 4-H with her delivering a donation to the Backpack Program and I asked her about her helpers, and she said, ‘Nobody helps me,’ and I said, ‘Oh, well when do you pack?’ So I just came and I didn’t give her the opportunity to say she didn’t need me,” Andrews stated.
With 15 years of experience under their belts, the volunteers are now able to pack food for the students of Aurora, Giltner, Hampton, Headstart and Sixpence within an hour and a half. 
Former Giltner teacher Jo Gilson, who has been delivering food backpacks to Giltner since 2015, commented that the work is meaningful.
“I like working with all these ladies, coming down and spending the morning packing bags,” Gilson said. “We have a good time. It gives me something to do once a month now that I’m retired. I just look forward to working with the people and doing something for the community.”
Pickering also gives credit for the program’s success to the growing number of donors throughout Hamilton County. 
“We get donations from churches, businesses, regional companies, local companies and what has helped us is we are not a 501(c)(3). A foundation allows use us to use their 501 (c) (3) for one day in a year,” Pickering stated. “We’ve been a part of Go Big Give for the last two years and we’ve been fortunate enough to get grants from the Hamilton Community Foundation.”
The cost to provide the right amount of food each month is between $1,500 and $1,700,” according to Pickering.
Regarding the Soup Bowl Fundraiser, Pickering said, “Groceries are expensive and so we thought this was one way that we can help fund the backpacks and not have to go to the generosity of the churches and all the different organizations.” 
Pastor Rudy Flores of Aurora’s Messiah Lutheran Church, Mardell Jasnowski and Pickering created the pottery bowls for the funraiser, while the backpack crew glazed and designed them. Former Aurora teacher, Lynda Ochsner, said approximately 70 bowls had been made as of March 1.
“We didn’t finish all the ones that are here today,” Ochsner said. “So we will be finishing up those and I think they may make a few more.”
“It’s just something I think that’s beneficial to the community,” she stated. “Having been a teacher for over 40 years, it is an extension of who I am, helping children and families.”
When families purchase a bowl for $15, they will also be provided a meal made by the volunteers of the backpack program.
“We’ll have probably 75 bowls ready,” Pickering stated. “They will buy them and they get to choose their own bowl. We will fill it with soup, and they will have bread, a drink and bar cookies.” 
For those interested in purchasing a bowl but who aren’t able to stay, carry out will be available. “They can purchase their bowl and then we’ll put their soup in a thermal container and they can take it out with them,” Pickering explained. “There’s going to be a lot of people who are going to be working so they can just have somebody come and pick up (their bowl), but they probably need to look at their bowls because they’re getting art.”
One of the soups on the menu will be lobster bisque provided by Shucks Fish House and Oyster Bar in Omaha.
“We’ll also have chicken tortellini and lentil soup and a couple other soups,” Pickering commented. 
Pickering said wooden bowls will also be available.
“We have a local woodworker who is making wooden bowls for the bread on the tables too and those can be purchased, all to fund the Backpack Program,” she said.
Pickering said the fundraiser is something she hopes will continue in future years.
“If it’s a success, I think it we’ll do it again,” she stated. “We’re hoping to get at least 75, and if we get more than 75 people wanting to purchase a bowl, we’re going to have a rain check where we’ll have somebody taking names and information and then we’ll make another bowl and get it to them.”
The fundraiser will take place in the basement of PUCC located at 939 K St. Participants can enter through the church’s north door.