Olivia Gillespie has a big heart. The mere thought of her fellow classmates going home to a house with no food over the weekend initiated action in the young girl, who, for five years now, has collected food donations for her birthday.
For the last five years, Gillespie has asked her family and friends to give her food donations for her birthday, rather than the lavish, expensive gifts that have been wrapped and topped with a bow. The upcoming freshman has then donated all the items to Backpack Buddies, a program in Clinton City Schools that provides children in need of food over the weekend with a bag that contains six adequate meals and two snacks to last them until they return to school on Monday.
“I want to help others who have less than I do,” Gillespie shared. “This program is a great program because it helps children in my school system who don’t have enough food at home. I have so many things to be thankful for and I want to give back to the community.”
According to Jean Kunzman, Backpack Buddies provides children from food-insecure homes with healthy weekend meals during the school year. The children, selected by school principals, guidance counselors, and supervisors of various after school programs, receive a backpack containing six balanced meals and two healthy snacks at the end of every week. Local corporations, civic groups, and individuals help collect and pack bags with kid-friendly non-perishable food or become official sponsors.
Gillespie, who is a student at Clinton High School, began collecting the food when she turned 10. For the last five years, every June, when her birthday rolls around the young student asks that her friends and family bring food. At the beginning of August, those items are then delivered to Sunset Avenue School.
“I feel excited and glad that I can help those who are in need of food,” Gillespie said. “I do not want others to be hungry and I hope that my donation will help jump start the school year.”
Despite being active in the Grove Park Baptist Church youth group, Gillespie finds time to run cross country and play soccer for both the school and Clinton United soccer team. With the help of her family, parents Perry and Anna Gillespie and grandparents, Gloria Gillespie and Jamie and Kathy Little, the teen plans to continue collecting food donations for birthday presents.
Each year, Gillespie usually donates approximately 14 bags of food. This year, she believes she has collected more than ever before. When she made her delivery Thursday, the table was stacked full of boxes of non-perishable food items.
The Backpack Buddies program has helped more than 2,000 students over the past year, sending home nearly 75,000 backpacks from 67 sites, across seven counties in North Carolina. Locally, 250 bags of food are handed out to students each week.
For many of the children who receive the bags of food, this is the only means of a meal they will have over a weekend, when they aren’t at school.
“My mom is working, but when she gets her check she doesn’t have enough money to buy enough food for all of us,” one backpack recipient shared. “I live with my mom, dad and four brothers and sisters. There have been times when there wasn’t any food or enough food.”