Tiffany Williams: Nourishing brains, bodies and hearts

How did you make a difference today?

It’s a question Tiffany Williams takes to heart, one she can answer affirmatively every day.

Thanks to Williams’ efforts, hunger over the weekends during the school year is not a problem for 150 school children in Post Falls.

Williams, a mom herself, helped start the Post Falls Weekend Nutrition Backpack Program in 2012.

Williams was concerned when she saw and heard of children in Post Falls schools who weren’t receiving adequate nutrition.

The program is modeled after a successful nutrition backpack program Williams’ friend, Sherri Bullock, started in Coeur d’Alene.

“I said, ‘What are you doing and how can I do it in Post Falls?’” Williams said.

Williams, a hygienist at Post Falls Family Dental, now serves as a liaison for the Post Falls program working with the school counselors, keeping track of the children in the program to determine how many packs are needed at each school.

She knows the program is helping meet a critical need, and would like to see it expand to help more kids.

“I had a patient in my chair. It was a kindergarten teacher, and the little boy was eating chalk...that just broke my heart,” Williams said. “He was eating chalk because he was hungry, so she got him on the program.”

Williams sat down with The Press last week and talked about the program.

Press: What did you see that told you there was a need for a backpack nutrition program in Post Falls?

Williams: I used to volunteer at my kids’ school, every Friday, for about eight years. There were several instances that kind of popped up. One, a little girl was falling asleep in class, and she was just kind of disruptive, and then they’d send her to the nurse’s office, and she’d come back fine. It was later apparent that she didn’t have enough nutrition, so they’d give her a granola bar or an apple or something to eat and it would calm her down for awhile. Another little boy started crying once in the lunch line because he was afraid he wasn’t going to have enough food to eat after school was over. That’s kind of when it became really apparent that, OK, something’s got to be done here.

Press: That’s got to be heartbreaking.

Williams: Yes. That’s why often, I would pay kids’ lunch bills off in the lunch line, because they were negative. I just couldn’t stand seeing that.

Press: What has the response been to the program?

Williams: Positive. The schools definitely are supportive and helpful, and so are the counselors. Our biggest issue is money because dollar-for-dollar we put it right toward food, everyone is a volunteer in the program, so whatever dollar amount we get in each year determines how many kids we can feed. We’ve increased it from 75 to 150 over the four years.

Unfortunately, I got our most current numbers for our school district and we’re not even reaching 5 percent of the kids who could be on the program. We’re basically just reaching the homeless kids right now. We’re getting the ones who are living in sheds, cars, tents, with grandma, backyards. We’re definitely reaching the most important, but not everyone who could benefit.

Press: Do you ever hear from the families that receive this assistance?

Williams: Sometimes when I get a registration back, I’ll just get little notes: ‘Thank you,’ ‘I couldn’t do it without you,’ or ‘I really appreciate what you do.’ Those are the only responses I get to see, because it is very, very anonymous. We keep it very hush-hush. We don’t want other kids to tease them or make fun of them. I’ve asked for some input from the teachers, counselors and they’re all very thankful.

Press: We’ve occasionally heard criticism of programs like this. How do you respond to that?

Williams: I’ve been blessed. I haven’t heard the criticism from it. Sure, I agree that parents should be taking care of their kids, but they’re not, so that’s where I can help. This was a program that came close to my heart only because children are so innocent in this situation, and parents sometimes cannot help the situations they’re in. Sometimes they can, but that’s not for me to determine.

Press: You said money is a big challenge. Are there other challenges?

Williams: We’ve overcome a few. One, we have a registration process, only because it was what the superintendent wanted, because he did want the parents to be involved. He didn’t want to just be giving the kids food. One of the challenges is that some of the parents can’t read and write. It was a big challenge in the beginning, so we’ve incorporated a verbal registration they can fill out with the counselors. The other challenge is that unfortunately our food is the same almost every week, so the kids kind of get tired of it. But we get it from Second Harvest at a big discount rate. They do all the school programs — Bonners Ferry, Coeur d’Alene, Rathdrum, us.

Press: What kind of food goes into the packs?

Williams: There are little packets of cereal, sunflower seeds, two small lunch items like raviolis, SpaghettiOs, fruit snacks. They do try to keep it balanced.

Press: How do you keep it confidential?

Williams: The food is packed in black bags and the kids get to put them in their own backpack. They will go to the office or a counselor’s office at the end of the day on a Friday, and they will take it home that way. We say ‘backpack program’ and people think we send them a backpack. We chose not to do that because they would be carrying two backpacks and that was pretty obvious.

Press: Who do people contact if they want to donate funds for the program?

Williams: Just through the Post Falls Food Bank. If they make any donation, they just have to memo it for our program specifically. I function under their 501(c)3, but I’m separate.

I guess another challenge, I should say, is we are stressed on room at the food bank, so we have been looking for another building in the Post Falls area.

Press: You don’t want people to donate food?

Williams: It becomes really challenging trying to get 150 of the same items.

Press: Why should people support the backpack program?

Williams: Those kids are the innocent ones in a situation. They are a victim of circumstance, and honestly, because I was able to see the trickle down effect of not having enough nourishment or sleep, you know the grades suffer, but then the whole class suffers because the teachers are constantly tending to those students.

We don’t have enough data yet to support it, but we have seen in those kids that are getting the program — the attendance is better because they show up. They want their backpacks and they show up Mondays for food as well. The grades have gone up. They can think better. The teachers are seeing it.

Press: Is it primarily for elementary school kids?

Williams: We start at elementary age, but we do serve all siblings. We don’t want the high schoolers taking the food from the little ones, so we serve all ages, but it starts at the elementary level. However, Mark (Jones, director of the Post Falls School District’s Alternative to Suspension program) has come to me a few times with kids at the high school level who need it. I don’t deny them.

Press: Speaking of high school kids, what’s it like having a houseful of them?

Williams: Busy. My son is awesome. He’s very driven. He’s dual-enrolled, 4.2 (GPA). He just made DECA state president, which is awesome. He’s going to be in charge of the whole state next year. He follows in my footsteps. He’s a mover and a shaker. My daughter’s a volleyball player, and the twins. I have one attending the Idaho Youth Challenge Academy right now, which is down in Pierce, Idaho. It’s a military-based school. It’s absolutely fabulous. I can’t say enough about that.

We’re always busy. We love family dinners, games, hunting, gardening. We’re looking at chickens right now. We have a dog named Ozzie and a cat named CJ.

Press: Are you involved in other community activities?

Williams: I have another program we started. It’s been two years now. We do it at Christmastime. We call it a ‘flash-give.’ We will usually get the name of a family in need from the food bank. We don’t tell them what we’re doing. We have the food bank get some information from them — sizes and things like that. I have a group of people that usually join in, and we buy them gifts. Then we show up on Christmas Eve morning and just one by one we put all the gifts on their porch, and say ‘Merry Christmas’ and just walk off.

My kids and I did it the first year, and then I just asked some of my coworkers, so they all kind of chip in and buy a snowsuit or some boots for the kids, or gift cards or groceries. Then last year, I put it on Facebook and got a few more people. My kids love it. It is such a neat way to start the Christmas Eve day.

I would love to expand it and be able to do more than one family.

For information about the Post Falls Weekend Nutrition Backpack Program, call the Post Falls Food Bank: 208-773-0139.