68 Hours of Compassion

Claire Bloom was surprised when a friend mentioned that there are children going unfed on weekends in her hometown of Dover, New Hampshire. “How can that be?” the retired Navy Lieutenant Commander wondered.

Inquiring into the issue, Bloom learned that school cafeteria workers were noticing some students arriving for breakfast on Monday mornings and devouring their government-provided meals. Teachers and counselors were also spotting children who were lethargic after weekends, and prone to misbehavior. These are all signs of hunger.

So in 2011, Bloom started a nonprofit organization called End 68 Hours of Hunger. The name refers to the span between school lunch on Fridays to school breakfast on Mondays, a time when many students reliant on government-sponsored free or reduced school meal programs have nothing to eat. She modeled the program on so-called “backpack models” popping up around the country. There are now End 68 Hours of Hunger programs in eight other cities.

Every Thursday, volunteers get together to fill the backpacks with food and ready them for delivery to schools on Friday morning. School staff members distribute the ordinary-looking bags to previously identified students.

The key to the program’s success is identifying the children who need it, says Bloom. “A child may be ridiculed for saying, ‘Daddy lost his job and we don’t have any food,’ and they quickly learn not to say anything. So the only way you know is by being vigilant and watching these kids.”

One in six Americans suffers some form of hunger, including a quarter of the country’s children. End 68 Hours of Hunger is meeting that need in a spirit similar to Franciscanomics.