Members of the Parkersburg Woman’s Club Brown Bag program Penny Burton, Janie Grimm and Barbara Payne packed lunches for students at Jefferson Elementary Center. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

PARKERSBURG — Members of the Health and Wellness committee of the Parkersburg Woman’s Club spend every Wednesday and Friday morning making 170 lunches each day, totaling 340 a week, for students at Jefferson Elementary Center.

“We get very good reports back from the kids, from the teachers, it’s been very positive for everybody,” Project Manager Susan Arbogast said.

Arbogast said about 20 women work on packing lunches with half working on Wednesday morning and the other half working on Fridays. The ladies have perfected their method of packing and it takes them about an hour and a half to fill the bags, she said.

“Everybody knows what they’re supposed to do,” Arbogast said. “When one person is doing this, another is doing that.”

Items packed into the lunches include apple sauce, beef sticks, cereal and cereal bars, fruit snacks, crackers, Pop-Tarts, pudding, peaches and more. Arbogast said they just got approved to start putting peanut butter into the lunches.

Marilyn Perry and Peggy Burton-Ols packed lunch bags at First Christian Church on Washington Avenue Wednesday as part of the Parkersburg Woman’s Club Brown Bag program. Every week the women pack 340 lunches for students at Jefferson Elementary Center. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

“We try to get as much nutrition as we can in there,” Arbogast said. “And we rotate it so the kids aren’t getting the same things.”

Arbogast said the Brown Bag program began years ago when two members of the Woman’s Club, who were former teachers, began asking about leftover food they could take students in need. She said things started small and have grown since then.

“Now every elementary school in Wood County has someone taking care of them,” Arbogast said. “Whether it’s a civic organization, or a church, or just a group of people who are committed.”

Arbogast said they resupply once a month and that it takes about $1,200 to do so. She said it’s through the generous donations of others that the program is able to operate.

“We get grants from the Parkersburg Community Foundation, donations from the Sisters of Assisi, the New Hope Baptist Church, we have a lady who belongs to a choir group, we got $1,000 from them,” Arbogast said. “We’ve gotten from different community organizations, we get anything from $20 to $5,000. Now, $5,000 comes from the grants.”

Penny Burton and Janie Grimm refilled a basket of chips Wednesday at First Christian Church on Washington Avenue. The two are part of the Parkersburg Woman’s Club Brown Bag program which provides lunches every week for 170 students. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

Arbogast said the Parkersburg Woman’s Club, which began in 1913, participates in numerous activities. She said they provide Ensure and Boost, daily nutritional shakes, to people at the Striker Cancer Center. She said they organize the Holly Trail, a yuletide tour of area homes, every year and they also sponsor two scholarships for local girls. She said they also have a bingo fundraiser scheduled for March 4 in the Parkersburg High School cafeteria.

“Anytime that we hear about anything needed for the health and wellness of Wood County, we pick it up,” Arbogast said. “This committee, and every committee in the Woman’s Club, is busy.”

For more information on the Parkersburg Woman’s Club, or the programs they participate in, individuals can visit their FaceBook page.

Douglass Huxley can be reached at dhuxley@newsandsentinel.com

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