Nixa Care to Trinh Nguyen for the Headliner News It’s no secret that through Nixa Care to Learn, food backpacks are distributed to students in need throughout the school year. However, thanks to successful fundraisers last year, Nixa Care to Learn was able to expand its food program to include a summer food distribution. “This is something that we have wanted to do for many years, but we did not have the money for it,” said Janel Harris, a Nixa Care to Learn board member. The money raised from Give Ozarks Day, an online fundraising event, funded the summer’s food program. Nixa Care to Learn expects to raise enough money over the next school year to make the summer food program an annual one, Harris said. Money was also raised through Back Pack Buddies, which is when individual donors sponsor a student for the entire year for $200. “This year we had 63 Back Pack Buddies, which was amazing,” said Annie Zimmerman, director of Nixa Care to Learn. Care to Learn’s mission is to provide help with the health, hunger and hygiene of students, so that they can be successful in school, according to its website. In Nixa, the No. 1 area of need is hunger. But hygiene and clothing are vital, too, Zimmerman said. When Care to Learn impacts a student through providing food, clothing or eye glasses vouchers, it is called an impression. This school year is considered very successful, as Care to Learn was able to increase the total of impressions on students to over 5,000. “We feel like that is very impactful, hopefully, and positive for each one of those kids,” Zimmerman said. “Our goal for next year would be to even go further than that and do more, but we feel like that’s a really good place for us to be for this school year.” Breaking down the entire school year, the organization spent around $30,000 meeting needs of students. The amount of money spent on each student varies, depending on the student’s specifi c needs. “The cost of a food bag is $5 each, but if the student receives a voucher for eye glasses, that would be about $130,” Zimmerman said. “It’s really hard to put a specifi c amount per student that we’re spending.” About 75 precent of Nixa Care to Learn funds each year go to the food backpack program. The rest of the fund is put into vouchers, which can be used for clothing, hygiene products, eye glasses and dental care, as well as family pest controls that fall in the category of health and hygiene needs. Unfortunately, between the end of summer school and the start of the new school year, students do not have access to food backpacks. With the program expansion, the organization was able to make food available for students during that gap. “Up until this point, there has not been 16 THE NEST NIXA PUBLIC SCHOOLS MAGAZINE Summer 2017
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