MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - Many organizations like the Haslett-Okemos Rotary Club and the Greater Lansing Food Bank work together to help feed local hungry children by preparing and delivering Weekend Survival Kits.

Weekend Survival Kits are backpacks full of healthy, child-friendly food and are given to children who are on free and reduced lunch programs in the public school system. Some items they may include are crackers, peanut butter, applesauce cups, raisins, macaroni and cheese, canned vegetables, fruit snacks, and oatmeal.

"When we started the program, we started out with Okemos and Haslett Public Schools. We have since dramatically expanded the program. East Lansing Public Schools are in it, we have Perry Public Schools, we have schools all over the region that are participating in the Weekend Survival Kit," said Julie Brixie, Meridian Township Treasurer and Haslett-Okemos Rotary Club Immediate Past President.

Volunteers, including the Haslett-Okemos Rotary Club, distribute the kits twice a month. After the weekend, children bring the backpacks back and the volunteers fill them up again. According to Brixie, there are eight distribution times during the year.

"The reason that we use backpacks for the program is that if every kid at every school is walking around with a backpack on, we wanted to make sure that the children didn't feel any kind of stigma associated with being the recipients of the food," said Brixie. "So, they aren't carrying a sack of groceries around at school, they're just walking over and putting a backpack on and taking the backpack home for the weekend and bringing it back the next day."

Brixie said the program began in 2008 and now serves 16 schools (mostly elementary schools) and 800 children. Of those 800, the Haslett-Okemos Rotary Club distributes kits to 153 children.