Exchange students help with Port Angeles food program

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, October 16, 2018

PORT ANGELES — Foreign exchange students are among those who volunteer to help prepare food bags for Port Angeles School District students who need them.

Sindija Bahmane of Latvia, Marija Arsovska of Macedonia and Fatima Bandukwala of India — all exchange students attending Port Angeles High School — volunteer for the Friday Food Bags program, which is facilitated by the Port Angeles Food Bank in partnership with the school district.

“This program is really great,” Bahmane said. “It helps a lot of children. We have something similar in Latvia.”

Food Bank volunteer Connie Panike, a local coordinator for American Councils, said the exchange program requires each visiting student to perform a number of volunteer hours.

“These girls have already put in well over the number of hours required. They are really good helpers,” she said.

The program provides a supplemental take-home sack lunch for the weekend for about 430 school children throughout the district during the school year.

This program is made available to school families who qualify for the Free/Reduced Lunch Program.

Each Wednesday, volunteers at the food bank put the food bags together and deliver them to the school buildings to be distributed before students are dismissed for the weekend.

Popular items include fruits, vegetables, tuna, macaroni and cheese in a box, peanut butter, meat sticks, fruit leather and granola bars.

“I am really happy to come each Wednesday and help with this program,” Arsovska said.

Said Bandukwala: “In India, we have similar programs through the government, but not through the schools. When I get back to India, I would like to suggest they adopt a similar program in the schools to this one.”