AIO Backpack Transition-A Heartfelt Farewell to Sarah Skovran
May 14, 2020
Dear AIO Community,
As someone who provides valuable time and support to AIO’s Child Hunger/ Backpack Program, led by Sarah Skovran, I am writing to let you know that Sarah has decided to step down as the Program Director at the end of June. The AIO Board of Directors, volunteers, partner schools, and clients are incredibly grateful for Sarah’s leadership, creativity, and passion for addressing child hunger in Knox County. We will miss her greatly.
As many of you know Sarah became the Program Director following Sherry Cobb’s retirement in 2019. Sarah is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, and her passion for providing healthy food options for children and families has always been her top priority. Under Sarah’s leadership, the program has offered creative and healthy menus, more variety, and child-friendly snack options.
Although the COVID-19 crisis presented additional challenges to the program, Sarah navigated all of those challenges successfully, prioritizing the health and safety of the program’s volunteers. With that in mind, Sarah recruited teams of family members to assemble the food bags. Despite the school closures, she developed a new food distribution system and found alternative food sources when our normal food supplies dwindled. Sarah kept our volunteers safe and the program operating without interruption. We are grateful for her thoughtful and steady leadership.
AIO’s Child Hunger/Backpack Program, which was started in 2015 in partnership with Good Shepherd Food Bank, began with a handful of volunteers and is now driven by a robust, dedicated team of volunteers who perform a myriad of tasks related to the program including assembling food bags, delivering food to schools, unloading food deliveries from Good Shepherd Food Bank, interacting with the schools, and much more. The goal remains the same: to provide weekend meals and snacks for school-age children and their families in Knox County.
The program’s dedicated volunteers ensure that the more than 360 families who are enrolled in this vital program receive food weekly during the school year. Despite the challenges presented by COVID-19, the program will continue to operate through the end of this school year and will begin again in the fall. AIO is dedicated to providing food to those in need in Knox County, and this program is crucial to that mission.
We will continue to provide you with program updates throughout the summer and let you know how you can continue to be involved. We have convened a Transition Team to move the program forward and to respond to the on-going challenges presented by the COVID-19 crisis. Our goal is to meet the needs of the children and families in Knox County who rely on this program. We will work with participating schools to ensure the supplemental weekend meal program continues to evolve and meet the needs of those participating families. I sincerely hope that you will continue to stay involved with the program and help carry on this important work led by Sarah that helps our neighbors in need.
We greatly appreciate the dedication and support of all our volunteers, and we are inspired everyday by your kindness and generosity.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments about the program.
Best,
Liz Jenkins
AIO Board President