By Eric J. Weilbacher
The Herald-Zeitung
Published April 15, 2010

Imagine catching the bus home from school on Friday with hunger pangs.

Now imagine being incapable of satisfying that hunger until Monday morning at school breakfast.

That happens every week for many students at Schertz Elementary, said Julie McCleland, vice principal of Schertz Elementary School in Schertz.

Schertz Elementary is a Title I campus, meaning about 400 of their 700 students are on free or reduced meal programs, McCleland said.

Now many of those students do not have to go hungry, thanks to a donation program, ‘Operation Backpack,” set up through a partnership with Discovery Church in Cibolo and Communities in Schools. Now the Triumphant Lutheran Church and several school staff members are involved.

“My superintendent (of the Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City Independent School District Dr. Greg Gibson) fills a backpack,” McCleland said.

Volunteers from the churches take a backpack home every Sunday and fill it with nutritionally-sound, nonperishable food items, such as juice boxes, oatmeal, granola bars and other items. The backpacks are returned to Schertz Elementary on Thursday afternoon, and distributed to the students participating in the program, guaranteeing them healthy meals on weekends.

The backpacks are returned on Mondays and the cycle begins again. What began as a program with 10 children receiving backpacks a few weeks ago has more than doubled.

“It’s amazing what its impact is on 42 families. The parents are appreciative too. They sign a permission slip and are responsible for getting the backpacks back to us,” McCleland said.

It all started with a call to act.

“I did a sermon series on love,” said Pastor Andy Hostetler of Discovery Church. He was asking his congregation what they could do other than traditional missionary work, and what local problems they could address. “What can we do to help the people, and if our church were to disappear tomorrow, would anybody miss us?” he asked his congregation.

The question was not rhetorical — he was looking for a project that would spark his congregants to act.

He eventually met with CIS and the administration at Schertz Elementary, including McCleland, and was stunned.

“One thing that really hit me, the school is about two miles from where I live, and all of those at-risk kids … this is out of a desire and challenge to the church,” Hostetler said.

“We don’t know who’s getting the backpacks,” he said, but they won’t stop filling them.