Happy Birthday Bags

In today’s troubled economy, as more families turn to local foodshelves, children’s birthdays may be overlooked in the struggle to put basics on the table. Now, thanks to Health Occupations students at the Hubert H. Humphrey Job Corps Center, 100 children’s birthdays will be a little brighter. The students started by decorating brown bags with colorful characters. Then they put into each bag a cake mix, candles, a can of frosting, a little tube of frosting for writing on the cake, forks, plates, napkins and a toy.

Students covered the cost of the bags by collecting donations from HHH staff members. Shortfall was made up by a cash donation from the Student Government Association (SGA), which generates its budget by cars parked on the property of the HHH Center during the State Fair.

In October the students delivered 25 birthday bags each to four different foodshelves in the Saint Paul area.

Mary Thoemke, a lifelong resident of Saint Paul, is a free lance writer for the Twin Cities Daily Planet.