Community Spotlight: Lovepacks

Community Spotlight: Lovepacks

Since Spring 2010, bags of food for children in the Lafayette-Oxford-University community have been packed with easy-to-eat, kid-friendly meals and lots of love.

Lovepacks is a local program that works with the Oxford School District and the Lafayette County School District to provide meals to children of any age in need of food to eat during weekends or holiday breaks. School counselors help identify children who need Lovepacks and they also discreetly place the Lovepacks in the backpacks of those children on Friday afternoons before school lets out. Since beginning, Lovepacks has delivered over 7,000 food packs to children in need.

Mary Leary, president of Lovepacks, works hard to collect donations and spread the word for this organization. “I have realized how many children need help; I am definitely more blessed, and I think all of our wonderful volunteers feel this way,” says Leary, “It really fulfills that desire to help others.”

Lovepacks, normally a school-year charity, figured out a way to help children in the summer this year by providing lovepacks to 40 children who participated in an Abbeville, Mississippi summer tutoring program. They packed a total of 280 Lovepacks to provide for each of the seven weeks the children are enrolled in the summer program.

Volunteers can help by donating food, organizing food drives, or getting a group they are involved with to collect food or money, as well as spreading the word about the issue of hunger in our area. You can contact Lovepacks to get help on setting up a food drive or to find out what food they need.

To get involved with Lovepacks this upcoming school year, visit oxfordlovepacks.com or call Mary Leary at 901-848-8193.

By: Autumn Davis