Category: Elijah’s Backpack

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Elijah's Backpack Ministries

Elijah’s Backpack

Judy Brammer

As the end of another school year approaches, those of us who have been involved with Elijah’s Backpack this year wanted to give a HUGE thank you to all of you who have supported this ministry all year. The congregation of St. Philip helps with donations of food, donations in memory or honor of loved ones, and of course packing and delivering the bags of healthy food and snacks that go home each weekend with children from the five different schools we serve. Sixty-five bags are sent home with children each  weekend throughout the school year. An extra bag of food is sent home holidays and at the end of the year.

A strong budget and volunteer help is  maintained with a partnership with Journey Church, Faith Alliance, Green Ridge Presbyterian, and Northview UMC, Hollins University and local businesses.

We truly live in a generous community, and we like to think this happens because we all work together to watch over God’s neediest children.  God Bless you all!

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Elijah's Backpack Ministries Newsletter

600 Jars for 60 Years

On February 25, St. Philip will celebrate 60 years of ministry in the Roanoke Valley. (see page 1) Throughout the church’s history, congregation members have seen a need in our area and around the world and have sought a way to fill that need through mission and ministry. From creating a preschool – one of St. Philip’s first ministries – to 20 plus years of blood drives to community holiday meals to support of sister parish in Mponela, Malawi to Elijah’s Backpack, a feeding program that reaches children in five local schools.

In celebration of 60 years of ministry in the Roanoke Valley, the coordinators of Elijah’s Backpack have issued a challenge to the congregation – raise 600 jars of peanut butter in the month of February. That’s 100 jars of peanut butter per decade of service to St. Philip’s neighbors. Each week Elijah’s Backpack serves 64 children in need at Burlington Elementary, Mountain View Elementary, Glen Cove Elementary, Northside Middle, and Minnick School Main Campus. Six hundred jars of peanut butter will help feed these children through the end of the school year.

Beginning February 11 and running through Anniversary Sunday on February 25, you are invited to donate jars of peanut butter to Elijah’s Backpack. There will be a display set up in the Fellowship Hall for you to place your donations. The size peanut butter the ministry uses is 16-ounce jars, any brand. If you have any questions about Elijah’s Backpack or the 600 Jars drive, please speak to Judy Brammer or Nancy Shadix. Elijah’s Backpack also welcomes volunteers to help pack bags.

Let’s have a big tower of 16-ounce jars of peanut butter in the Fellowship Hall as the congregation moves into its 7th decade of ministry. St. Philip is truly a congregation that Lives Like †hat!

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Elijah's Backpack Global Missions Ministries

World Food Day 2017 – Malawi Feeding Centers & Elijah’s Backpack 

The right to food is a basic human right. Investing in sustainable food systems and rural development means addressing some of the major global challenges – from feeding the world’s growing population to protecting the global climate, and tackling some of the root causes of migration and displacement.

Currently, St. Philip supports 3 Feeding Centers in Mponela Parish in Malawi. The feeding centers serve nutritional meals to 150 orphans and vulnerable children each week during the rainy season (27 weeks). They also provide a mobile health clinic for families. $3 feeds one child for one week. Each center requires $450 each week to feed all 150 children. For the full 27 weeks, Mponela Parish needs $12,150! St. Philip’s noisy offerings have raised $1161 in 2017 – enough to feed all 150 kids for about 2 ½ weeks.

Elijah’s Backpack currently serves 43 kids in north Roanoke County – and more will join the program in the next few weeks. In 2016-2017, Elijah’s Backpack packed over 1700 bags of food. More than 50 volunteers logged nearly 5000 hours of service to kids in our community. Elijah’s Backpack has also added a new school this year: the Minnick School. We join others across Virginia in a goal to have no child hungry on the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, October 31, 2017.

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Elijah's Backpack Ministries

Elijah’s Backpack

Each Friday afternoon elementary school children receive a pack of healthy food and snacks in their backpacks. Elijah’s Backpack may include the following items: cereal, breakfast bars, oatmeal, juice, tuna kits, macaroni and cheese, peanut butter crackers, soup, apple sauce, fruit cups, ravioli, vegetables, milk, and other nutritious food.

What is Elijah’s Backpack?

Many families struggle to eat healthy meals and snacks every day. Elijah’s Backpack, a free community ministry sponsored by St. Philip Lutheran Church in Roanoke, Virginia, helps families eat more healthy meals and snacks through their local elementary school.

Each Friday afternoon elementary school children receive a pack of healthy food and snacks in their backpacks. Elijah’s Backpack may include the following items: cereal, breakfast bars, oatmeal, juice, tuna kits, macaroni and cheese, peanut butter crackers, soup, apple sauce, fruit cups, ravioli, vegetables, milk, and other nutritious food.

Elijah’s Backpack works with families at Mountain View Elementary and Burlington Elementary, in Roanoke County. The school principal and guidance counselor select participants based upon need. Program participation is kept confidential. A parent or guardian must return a signed permission form for their child to participate. This form is available from their elementary school counselor.

The prophet Elijah was sent by God to visit Zarephath, where he met a widow and her son. When he arrived, Elijah was quite hungry and asked for food. The widow had so little food for herself and her son that she feared they would die of hunger, yet she shared her own bread with Elijah. God responded by providing more than enough for the three to eat together. (1 Kings 17:8-16) God calls us to serve all who hunger (Matthew 25:35-40; James 2:15-16). The story of Elijah reminds us that those who are hungry are also our sisters and brothers, gifted by God and very often sharing what they have with others in need.

 WDBJ7’s news coverage of Elijah’s Backpack

Children carrying more than just books in their backpacks

Program Partners

Elijah’s Backpack is supported by St. Philip Lutheran Church, Hollins First Baptist Church, Enon Baptist Church, Hollins Church of the Nazarene, Northview United Methodist Church, Summerdean Church of the Brethren, Life Academy, Faith Alliance Church, Burlington Elementary, Mountain View Elementary, Feeding America Food Bank, Hollywood’s Restaurant, and donations from individuals supporting Elijah’s Backpack. We are seeking other community partners.