Meeting today to highlight juvenile food insecurity

Residents are invited to join the Weekend Bag Program in a town hall setting to support and recognize juvenile food insecurity in Sussex County.

Learn about the program’s mission and challenges at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 11 at Merriam Avenue Elementary School, 81 Merriam Ave., Newton. Radio host Bill Spadea will be a special guest.

The Homer’s Girls food truck will be there at 5:30 p.m., selling dinner items, desserts and drinks.

Olivia and Magdalen Costello are calling for action as the youngest members of the Sussex County Chamber of Commerce. The sisters run the nonprofit organization, which was created in 2016 by their older sister, Isobel.

The program provides food and hygiene products to students throughout the county who otherwise would not have food during the weekend. It aims to provide for students where free assisted meal programs don’t reach.

The Weekend Bag Program supports 16 schools and 167 students each week while remaining an anonymous helping hand.

It expanded to 16 schools in 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, and “between May and June (2020), we were able to provide over 800 bags,” said Olivia, president of organization. “To date, we have provided over 120,000 meals to our peers in Sussex County, and we are growing and expanding.”

Schools that have adopted the Weekend Bag Program include Merriam Avenue School, Halsted Middle School, Sussex County Charter School for Technology, Sussex County Technical High School, Hardyston Township Elementary School, Hardyston Township Middle School, Montague Township School, Stillwater Township School and Sussex County Community College.

For information, go online to www.weekendbagsprogram.com

To donate, make out checks to the Weekend Bag Program and mail them to P.O. Box 205, Andover, NJ 07821.