Seated, from left: Christine Cortese, Jenkins Township; Nichole LaFratte, West Wyoming; and Ann Priebe, Wyoming.  Standing, from left:  Dominic Conte, Parsons; Mary Ann Pepsis, MRDD Program Specialist, Swoyersville; Eric Grohol, Wilkes-Barre; and Stacey Williams, MRDD Program Director, Kingston.

MRDD Clients Support CEO’s Backpack Program
Posted April 24, 2012

Clients and staff of Community Counseling Services’ Mental Retardation Day Development (MRDD) program are volunteering their time to support the Commission on Economic Opportunity’s (CEO) Backpack Program.

The Backpack Program is an emergency food assistance program designed to help disadvantaged children in local schools obtain healthy foods on a weekly basis.  MRDD clients help sort and bundle donated foods for distribution to Ross Elementary School in Sweet Valley. The school places the bundled foods into backpacks that are distributed to needy school children. 

Placing the food in a backpack to be carried home helps remove the stigma or embarrassment a child might experience if he or she were to carry home a bag of groceries. 

This is the first year for the CEO program.