Columbia University’s National Center for Children in Poverty has recently made claims that the largest threat to children’s well being is economic instability. Impoverished children are in a constant cycle of not having access to necessary nutrition, of being significantly behind in school due to not having access to public education until they are five, of dealing with severe instability due to constantly moving around, and so much more. Louisiana as a whole is ranked 49th for child well being, largely due to poverty rates. These issues have not escaped Southwest Louisiana. In fact, within Lafayette, 27% of children live below the federal poverty line.
With this being said, it is as crucial as ever for those financially able to give back to the community. A great resource in Southwest Louisiana is United Way. This organization provides free education for children from birth through three years old to avoid the usual education gap, creates “Weekend Food Packs” to combat hunger issues, provides prescription discounts to make medicines more accessible, and helps with other financial or health issues in Louisiana. An opportunity has recently arisen for Ascension Episcopal School to help impoverished children in the local community, specifically the students at Gethsemane Christian Academy.
A program called 52 Shepherds was developed by local resident Justin Back in 2022. Partnering with Louisiana State Senator Gerald Boudreaux, Back has founded a system that is not only practical for those donating, but also extremely efficient and effective in providing food for impoverished children. 52 Shepherds now connects private schools with schools in need to collect and distribute food to children over the weekend. This program was made to help combat the issue of many children only receiving food from their lunch meals provided by the federal government. That leaves two days of the week that these children are not eating. Back’s ingenious idea was to create pantries that are filled with food every week by families within a private school’s community.
The private schools are provided a sheet for families to sign up for one week of the school year that they will provide food for the pantry of their assigned school. Once the family is signed up, they will have that same week every year thereafter. On the assigned week, families deliver food on Friday mornings, and students are encouraged to participate in the delivery as well. The food delivered is then bagged by staff members and then the children are able to bring home food from the school’s pantry for the weekend.
This program is unique in that it is directly creating results for the children in need. In other cases it is more of a process of raising money, buying food, and then having volunteers deliver to the homes. In this program students are able to get involved and deliver the food with their parents, teaching how to give back to the community and create change. Additionally, the children in need are able to bring home food directly from their school. So far, 52 Shepherds has paired six private schools with schools in need, most recently Ascension Episcopal School with Gethsemane Academy.
Helping the community is beyond important and organizations such as United Way and 52 Shepherds make the opportunities abundantly available. Within the local community there are so many children who would benefit significantly from any form of generosity. Community service projects like these can help improve the inner community poverty rates and expand to the state of Louisiana.
