MONROE — This week, SSM Health Monroe Hospital and SSM Health Monroe Clinic Medical Group donated over 300 backpacks worth of nonperishable food items to the School District of Monroe to support their Backpack Buddies Program. 

The Backpack Buddies program at School District of Monroe provides weekend food for students who rely on school meals to fulfill their weekly nutritional needs. Currently, the Backpack Buddies Program serves around 220 Monroe students and roughly 130-150 families, which is about 10% of the student population. 

This donation is the result of a food drive led by SSM Health Monroe Hospital’s Mission Action Team across their hospital and all 12 SSM Health Monroe Medical Group clinics. A friendly 2-week competition amongst departments of who could collect the most backpacks worth of food took place. Each backpack entry included two breakfast items, two lunch items, two dinners and four snacks. In addition to the competition, staff also donated other individual food items for the program. 

“We have such wonderful team members here who took time out of their busy days and their own money to give back to our community,” said Megan Riese, medical assistant at SSM Health Monroe Clinic Medical Group and Mission Action Team member. “As food insecurity numbers rise, we wanted to help those families have access to food to keep kids from being hungry.” 

As reported in the 2021 Green County Community Health Needs Assessment, more than 35% of children are eligible for free or reduced school lunch and 9% of residents lack adequate access to food.