Over the past year, members of Dowagiac’s Saint Francis Outreach have ensured that nearly two dozen Justus Gage Elementary School students could spend their weekends concentrating on their studies, family and friends — and not on finding their next meal.

Thanks to a generous donation from The Pokagon Fund, the charity will soon be lending a hand to even more children across the Dowagiac area, as it will more than quadruple the reach of its BackPack food program.

Beginning Oct. 6, members of Saint Francis and their partners with Pokagon United Methodist and Sister Lakes Community Churches will begin buying and delivering sacks of food to a group of students at all four Dowagiac Union Schools elementary buildings. The schools’ front office will hand out the donated items at the end of the school week to 25 children in each building, who will be selected by the counseling staff based on their family’s level of need.

The nonprofit received the boost it needed to expand the reach of its year-old BackPack program earlier this summer, when the board of New Buffalo’s The Pokagon Fund awarded the group a $10,000 grant. The funding, combined with an additional $6,000 contributed by Saint Francis Outreach and its partners, will help pay for weekend meals for 100 local students from October through the end of the 2017/18 school year June 8, said Jeanne Jourdan, chair of the Saint Francis Outreach Board.

Jourdan said the Pokagon Fund’s donation was near the maximum amount of money that the New Buffalo organization, which redistributes earnings from the Pokagon Band’s Four Winds Casino to community organizations, can give for a single project.

“It’s very exciting,” she said. “We are very grateful that the Pokagon Fund was so generous to us.”

The expanded BackPack program is the largest endeavor that Saint Francis Outreach has undertaken yet.

The charity, comprised of members of Dowagiac’s Holy Maternity of Mary and Silver Creek Township’s Sacred Heart of Mary, was started in October 2015. Its members volunteer their time and energy to a number of causes, including donating to local food pantries and organizing clothing drives in the spring and winter.

The organization started the BackPack program at Justus Gage last fall, after a counselor at the school asked if its members could help the school’s needy students. Volunteers were happy to oblige, as they knew of a similar program run by members of Pokagon United Methodist Church at Patrick Hamilton Elementary, Jourdan said.

Once a week, Saint Francis members would shop for groceries to donate to 20 students. Each bag the members assembled included food for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack time, such as cereal, soups, juice and fresh fruits and vegetables.

“We aim to have foods kids will want that are still healthy for them to eat,” Jourdan said. “You won’t find any potato chips in the bags, as much as kids may love them.”

While an asset to the 20 Justus Gage children they were helping, the organization recognized tremendous need for such a service in Dowagiac throughout the entire district, as between 50 to 75 percent of the student population qualifies for free school lunches under federal guidelines, Jourdan said.

Under the expanded program, Saint Francis members will continue handling deliveries to Justus Gage, while volunteers with Pokagon United Methodist will continue helping with Patrick Hamilton Students. Parishioners with Sister Lakes Community Church will begin dropping off food at Kincheloe and Sister Lakes elementary schools, Jourdan said.

With the wind at their backs, volunteers with the powered-up BackPack program are ready to begin filling carts and filling bellies of hungry children in need.

“This program is going to be a big help to a lot of local families,” Jourdan said.