Many hands, One Heart

PTA

Talbott Springs Elementary School

Inspired Beginnings

The heart of our program began in 2011 when Tamala Reid was substituting at Talbott Springs Elementary School and a student spoke to her. He was worried that he would not have enough food for the upcoming four-day weekend.  Tamala was concerned. That evening she was inspired while reading about the Blessings in a Backpack program in People Magazine. She immediately contacted the Principal, Nancy Thompson, and was granted permission to begin the program. Tamala contacted the Blessings in a Backpack coordinator for the path to set up the program at Talbott Springs’s and with the combined efforts of the principal, PTA, and members of the Community Outreach committee the program was launched. Talbott Springs is proud to be the first Blessings Program in Central Maryland to feed students on the weekends who have food insecurities.

The Blessings program began with 10 students has expanded to over 100 giving hearts and helping hands to deliver 80 and sometimes 100 students with Blessings Bags weekly.  Money was and continues to be donated by individuals, families, corporate sponsors and community members at large. We are truly Blessed and continue in Gratitude to our, “Many hands One Heart,” team.

STANDOUT MOMENTS

Standout moments come from our school-based delivery team realizing that they aren’t only providing food to feed the students they are also building relationships with them. The students develop a stronger connection with staff, feel comfortable speaking about other things in their lives, giving greetings, and are excited when they see them.  It becomes more than just food delivery.

SHOUT OUT TO VOLUNTEERS

A big shout out and thank you to the many volunteer hands with one heart that feeds the kids each weekend. They are a team of dedicated volunteers who continue to give freely of their time to shop, organize, pack, and deliver food to our students. They are committed to making certain the students in our Blessings in a Backpack program receive their Blessings Bags each week. The volunteers are community and school-based people and organizations ranging from the Principal, front office, dedicated staff members, Community Outreach Committee of the Talbott Springs PTA, the family involvement team, and corporate sponsors.

 The Charlotte Savoy Team and her One Kid Charity shops, organizes, packs, and delivers 400 or more Blessings Bags to our school each month and school-based volunteers make certain each student receives their food for the weekend.

The Blessing in a Backpack program continues at Talbott Springs Elementary School because of the dedicated team of empowered and committed volunteers. The volunteers help reach our goal to ensure children do not go hungry on the weekends.

We are truly grateful for all of our Blessings volunteers and donors for their past, present, and future support and contributions of time and monetary donations to help feed the students over the weekend. They make our program HAPPEN in our community.

Thank you to our many heart-filled VOLUNTEERS, for their many helping hands!