Nonprofit of the Month — Delta-Waverly Rotary Club Backpack Program

Aug 28, 2019, 2:05 PM

The Hastings Mutual Insurance Company Charitable Foundation recognizes the contributions of nonprofit organizations in the communities we serve. Each month, we’ll honor one of those organizations as our Nonprofit of the Month.

It’s back to school for students across our six-state region. But some students need a little more in their backpacks than textbooks and pencils. Nearly 600 students in the Delta-Waverly area, near Lansing, Michigan, qualify for free or reduced school meals. It’s students of every level, from those preparing to graduate next spring to brand-new kindergarteners. They’re the ones that the Delta-Waverly Rotary Club supports with its backpack program.

Rotary Club members gather snacks, canned food, and juice boxes into “survival kits,” small bags of food that are distributed to children twice a month. The food helps keep them full and energized over the weekend. The backpack program helps local students — but the Rotary Club estimates it only reaches about 30% of the students that need food support. The program has been in operation for seven years; in the 2017-2018 school year, nearly 1,000 “survival kits” were packed throughout the school year.

The Delta-Waverly Rotary Club Backpack Program is supported by Hastings Mutual and Rathbun Agency. Learn more about the backpack program at the Rotary Club's site.