Snack Pack Program Begins Another Year
School is back in session for the 2020-2021 year. This means the BackPack Snack Pack program is ready to begin another year! The BackPack Snack Pack program provides supplemental packs of food, every weekend, while school is in session. Fieldcrest students, who qualify for free and/or reduced lunches, in grades Pre-K through 5th grade, are eligible for the program.
Last year, the group provided 168 packages, on average, each week. Last year was a bit different, as the group also stepped up and continued to provide packs during the time schools were closed in conjunction with the school lunch program. The plan is the same for this school year. The Snack Packs are designed to be supplemental for students who may not have enough to eat outside of school. Each pack generally consists of 2 breakfast items, 2 entrée type items (canned soup, macaroni and cheese, pasta and sauce type items) and, 4 single-serve snack options.
The area food banks provide items for the BackPack Snack program. At times, there is a need for the program to purchase items if a category is low or missing items. It is generally cheaper for the group to purchase supplies in bulk through the area food banks or warehouse- type stores when this happens. This is when monetary donations are useful. If you would like to donate, monetary donations can be made payable to "BackPack Snack Pack" and sent to the following:
BackPack Snack Pack
C/O Immanuel Lutheran Church
318 W. 4th Street
Minonk, IL 61760
Due to COVID-19 mandates, volunteers are being kept at a minimum this year. The group volunteer coordinator will be in contact with volunteers for each packing session. If anyone has any questions, please contact any of the following committee members:
Pastor Joy Miller, 309-432-2100 or immanuel318@gmail.com
Leta Janssen, 309-275-1112 or leta.janssen4@gmail.com
Carol Rodseth 309-232-5460
Thank you for your support!
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Johnson Street Closed in Front of Primary School
Beginning tomorrow, Wednesday, August 26 through Thursday, August 27, the City of Minonk is closing Johnson Street to vehicle traffic. Repairs are being made to the street directly in front of the Primary School. The sidewalks will be open for foot traffic. Students will continue to enter the same doors and follow the same procedures as before. Parents are asked to use 5th and 6th street when parking. All Fieldcrest buses will load and unload on 6th street. An updated email will be sent when the work is completed.
Thank you for your patience and support!
Dr. Kari Rockwell
Spraying for Mosquitoes Tonight
The City of Minonk will be spraying for mosquitoes tonight (Thursday).
Bill Moline, City Admin
Covid 19
Dave,
Well said by the person who is semi-retired, and is not worried about having to go to work daily to make ends meet, nor must worry about his business closing. This is virus you are not stopping this virus. We are hoping and praying there is vax in a few months. If there is it will be the fast vax EVER, but we cannot shut down our country and hope there is a vax. We would shutdown again this virus might slow down for a bit, as soon as we open back up it will take off again. The purpose of the shutdown was to flatten the curve we did this, and it's still flat, hospitals are not over ran. Suicide and domestic violence have skyrocketed since all the shutdowns. All the experts say get the kids back to school. School is the only place they get structure, get guidance, get therapy, get meals. Fieldcrest is rural community where there is a lot of the students that do not have access to good internet or even internet at all. You cannot learn well from a phone even if they have one of those. If we shut the schools down again, we are going to have a generation who falls further behind. United State is already behind the rest of the world for education, the same world that is already back in school. If you sick and weak hunker down, so the rest of us can have a country to run. How is a Walmart employee essential, or even a person working the drive through at a fast food restaurant, but anyone else is not. We know how to be safe, masks, washing of the hands, disinfecting surfaces and 6ft away. If you have not lost your job because of this virus or are still getting paid to sit at home, you really should not be lecturing the rest of us who have lost our jobs or have to show up to work everyday so we do not lose our jobs, homes, or loved one to mental illness or domestic violence from this virus. 650K people day a year in united states from heart disease are you going to start locking people up if they are fat or smoke to flatten this curve. 83K people die of diabetes majority are type two, 55K from the common Flu. When does it stop, how is death acceptable for certain things but not this we cannot live our lives in fear, because when we go and hide we just get weaker.
Jack Franks
Staying at home during COVID-19
Decatur is getting more cases of the virus daily -20 something yesterday. We only had the one nursing home involved for so long but that has all changed. We HOPE to go back to church in Sept.
I have spent months staying home, sitting and knitting and watching old reruns on TV! I have knitted over 50 stocking caps for the church downstairs Christmas Tree. I do have a collection of masks in my car so I am prepared!
Betty Wheatley
Need Answers From IDES
Dear Editor,
More than five months into the coronavirus outbreak hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans have lost their jobs. Whether it was due to the economic slowdown or the Governor's shutdown order, our neighbors in every part of the state have found their lives turned upside-down through no fault of their own. Now, adding insult to injury, the State of Illinois has failed them when they have sought assistance from the unemployment insurance system.
Since the first days of this crisis, my office has taken hundreds of calls and e-mails from local residents who have been struggling to get answers from the Illinois Department of Employment Security, the state's unemployment agency. They have shared with me their stories of growing desperation as bills pile up and bank accounts empty out.
Sadly, some of those individuals who applied for help back in March tell me that they are still waiting, still calling IDES for updates on their applications and getting no response. They are not alone. A recent investigation by WGN-TV in Chicago revealed that between March and July there were 78.5 million calls placed to IDES, but fewer than 400,000 had been answered. That is less than one percent.
This is unacceptable. Many legislators from both parties, including me, have reached out to IDES and Governor Pritzker to call for action, but this ongoing failure continues and requests seem to fall on deaf ears. All the while, our neighbors continue to plead for help while their calls go unanswered.
It is time for action. Other states have been able to address the surge in applications, but Illinois has remained stuck. We need answers from IDES immediately on the reasons for this failure and their plan to fix it. Time is running out.
Rep. Thomas Bennett
Card shower for Marga Ahrens
Angela Cervi
Our Country
When did it become ok to loot and destroy personal or government property for any cause ? It's time for this to STOP
Dick Meierhofer
Fieldcrest Board Retreat Moved to September
The August Board of Education Retreat will be moved from Saturday, 8/15 @ 8:00 a.m. to a date in September TBD.
Sherry Tjaden
Wreck on Route116
Dave,
Just today I traveled that route & noted where the 3 young guys were killed recently.
Within about a mile of there, back in 1961, Dale Harms was killed when his car hit a tree - on the last day of our Senior classes.
Also within about a mile, back in the 1950s, there was a 2-car wreck that I believe killed 11 people. I remember that because my dad helped with ambulance service then and told how horrible that scene was.
So that small stretch of highway has had some very gruesome history.
Marv Cremer