Write a commentOswego's Blessings in a Backpack program will hold a drive-through grocery giveaway beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 8, at the Church of the Resurrection, corner of West Fifth and Cayuga streets.
The program received generous donations of food in recent months and will distribute the remaining bounty May 8 to local families in need. Volunteers will pack grocery bags with an assortment of food and hand out one bag to each car. Vehicles should enter the church driveway from Cayuga Street, and those inside should wear masks.
Blessings in a Backpack is a national organization with a mission of helping to end childhood hunger.
The Oswego program began 2020 providing weekend meals and snacks to 400 hungry schoolchildren. Orderly deliveries were upset along with school schedules beginning in spring of 2020, but deliveries have continued one way or another in coordination with the Oswego City School District.
"The pandemic has certainly thrown us a curveball," said Melissa Russell, coordinator of Oswego's Blessings in a Backpack.
Reflecting on the past year, she said, "Our numbers of students have fluctuated, and we have had to cancel all fundraising — but we are still going strong. People continue to donate and are keeping us in their thoughts."
