Local pottery artists are firing their kilns for the sixth year to help hungry children in the greater Flat Rock area. The annual “Empty Bowls” fundraiser benefitting Flat Rock Backpack Program will be held Sunday, August 13, 2023, in the Parish Hall at St. John in the Wilderness Episcopal Church. Details and ticket information for Empty Bowls are at this link.

The Flat Rock Backpack Program

Fourteen years ago, parishioners at St. John in the Wilderness learned that several children attending Flat Rock Middle School were going hungry on weekends. The students were all participants in the free breakfast and lunch programs offered at public schools and had insufficient access to nutritional foods on Saturdays and Sundays.  

Parishioner Debby Staton had recently retired from her teaching career with Henderson County Public Schools, and she was asked to help organize a fledgling program to provide food for the hungry students.  “I thought it was a good fit for me because of being a retired teacher,” Debby explains. “I had just finished twelve years at Etowah Elementary, and I knew from first-hand experience that there were hungry kids in my school.” 

The program started small with just eight children at Flat Rock Middle School.  Early on, the group would literally pack the children’s backpacks with food. The program has evolved over time, and now the group fills grocery bags with food and delivers the bags to each location for distribution to the students.  Through the years, word of the group’s efforts began to spread and today the Flat Rock Backpack program serves eight different schools and child care facilities. During the most recent school year, the group was assembling as many as 210 bags of food for distribution each week and packed over 5,500 bags during the year.

Backpack Program volunteers originally met at St. John’s Parish Hall but a scheduling conflict soon left them looking for a new venue to do their food packing. Starr Teel, owner of Hubba Hubba Smokehouse and also a parishioner at St. John, offered his outdoor seating area to the group.  “Because we were out in a more public area now, we have gotten people in from the community,” says Debby. “And we have changed our name to the Flat Rock Backpack Program.”

Although the group operates under the financial umbrella of St. John, they are a non-denomination outreach program with volunteers from various faith communities around Henderson County.  “St. John’s has 501c3 status, and they accept donations for us and help us with the accounting,” says Debby. “They are also wonderful in supporting us financially through their outreach program funds and individual contributions from members.”

The group meets on Fridays during the school year with approximately 20 volunteers preparing food bags for up to 210 children in the area. The group receives a “core bag” of food for each child from Manna Food Bank. They then use their own funds to purchase additional foods from stores such as Aldi’s and Sav-Mor Foods. Volunteers assemble a bag of food for each child, and the bags are sealed with tape and delivered by volunteer drivers to each of the locations served by FRBP.  

“We try to make sure that the children have two or three dinners and then two lunches,” Debby explains. “During the harvest season, the apple growers in Henderson County have provided apples for us from when we start in September until the Christmas break. They’ve been very generous to us.”

The group currently has about 40 volunteers that rotate Friday mornings at Hubba Hubba. The group meets at 8:45 am and their assembly line process makes quick work of the task. Debby is always open to more volunteers to help fill any gaps caused when volunteers age out or have health issues that make it impossible to continue. “Like any organization or volunteer group, we have a core group that shows up consistently but we're always happy to have help.”

Current volunteer and Flat Rock resident, CC Blackburn, is grateful for the opportunity to volunteer with the program. “Like most of us here today, a friend told me about the program. This is a community-wide effort with tremendous support from St. John. We are able to gather and know that we are doing something to help part of our community that is so fragile and desperately needs our help. This is a very direct way to make a real difference. And I really enjoy the camaraderie of the group.”

The Flat Rock Backpack Program is also very grateful for financial donations that allow the Snack Packers to supplement the food bags provided by Manna Food Bank. The annual cost of running the program has been approximately $26,000/year. The Empty Bowls Fundraiser also hosted by St. John’s is the major fund-raising activity for FRBP and provides approximately 50% of their annual budget. The rest comes from private, church, or civic donations.

Anyone wishing to contribute can make out a check to St. John in the Wilderness and put Backpack Program in the memo line:

St. John in the Wilderness
PO Box 185
Flat Rock, NC 2873