Gifts of Love Adds as New School System to their Backpack Program

Gifts of Love has teamed up with the Torrington Schools, and the Torrington Police Activities League fight childhood hunger in the town. The program will kick off on Mar. 5. On Fridays, children in Torrington’s schools will leave school with backpacks filled with a weekend’s worth of food for their families. The backpacks will be delivered by members of the Torrington Police Activities League (PAL). Students are currently enrolling in the program and administrators expect at least 50 to participate.

The effort was spearheaded by a town resident, Michele Sok, who was concerned about the pandemic’s impact on the community’s children. “I have an 18-month-old and the thought of a child going hungry was more than I could imagine. Over the last year I have seen a lot of families impacted by the pandemic. I wanted to find a way to help,” she says.

Sok was looking for a way to start a backpack program to provide weekend food for children and their families. She thought the town would have to build the program from scratch and she was ready to take on the challenge. Sok reached out to Nancy Carlson at Gifts of Love for some tips on how to successfully build a similar program. “I knew Gifts of Love had a successful backpack program and I was hoping to pick her brain about that,” says Sok. “By the end of the call Nancy had offered to expand the Gifts of Love program to include Torrington.” Currently Gifts of Love serves 22 schools with weekly backpacks, packed by volunteers and delivered on Fridays.

The Torrington PAL organization got involved after a call from Sok. “I was impressed by her passion about this because she doesn’t have a child in the school system yet, but she was willing to bring this to life to help other children,” says Chris Smedick, Executive Director of Torrington PAL. Their organization will pick up the backpacks from the Gifts of Love offices in Avon and deliver them to the city’s schools. “We have had a great relationship with the Torrington Schools for many years, so it was a no-brainer for us to help out by picking up and delivering the backpacks on Fridays,” he says.

“Our school community has continuously benefited from the kindness and generosity of those willing to lend a hand to help our students and their families in challenging times,” says Susan M. Lubomski Superintendent of Schools. “It is heartwarming to see how Ms. Sok’s desire to provide nutritious meals on the weekends to families in need has brought these wonderful resources from Gifts of Love to the Northwest corner of Connecticut. This support and coordination with PAL to help with the implementation of this initiative during such a crucial time is incredibly appreciated and will definitely bring a smile to the faces of our students and their families.”

Labbe and Fergusson expect it to expand. “We expect it to grow over time,” says Labbe. To find families interested in participating, the school system sent out applications in both English and Spanish to all parents of elementary school applications in both English and Spanish. Families of students in the Torrington schools who want to participate can apply by contacting their child’s school social worker at their individual schools.

She encourages individual members of the community and local businesses to donate to fund the program. Those interested in supporting it can donate through the Gifts of Love website, GiftsofLoveCT.org and can earmark the funds for the Torrington Backpack program.

“We are genuinely excited to see how this effort has taken off,” says Sok. “If community members and businesses want to support this, that would be wonderful. So many people want to find a way to help others during this time, and this gives people a platform to help families in our community directly. Everyone is open and wanting to help in some way. No one wants to see a child go hungry.”