iJAG students pack thousands of meals at conference

Students from Davenport West High School brushed up on life skills and helped package 10,000 meals for Iowans in need in their own communities.

The meal assembly happened at the FFA Enrichment Center in Ankeny as part of the first Iowa Skills Development Conference. The all-day conference featured skills workshops, activities and professional development for over 300 students in grades 7-10 who are part of iJag at their school. Students worked on presentations together, focusing on skills like speaking and resume writing. The conference was hosted by iJAG, along with Des Moines Area Community College. All 10,000 meals packaged during the event will be distributed across more than 130 schools that are part of iJAG for distribution to others.

“This is the first time and we did a really good job. These guys did a tremendous job,” said David Robinson, iJag specialist at West. The meals packaged by the West students will be delivered to King’s Harvest for distribution. The meals are nutritionally balanced and students measured items like macaroni and cheese and red beans to fill the packages.

“We had rice, beans, some sort of grain with a protein pack,” said Bryce Snow, class of 2027. “We had to measure them out to a certain weight and then we had to seal it, get all the air out as much as possible.” Students worked in shifts and packed all 10,000 meals in about 40 minutes. “It’s a big honor for us to be able to pack this stuff and deliver to our community because we know a lot of us out here need extra help.”

None of the students sampled any of the items they were packaging because they wanted to make sure all of it went to those in need.

“It’s just amazing and it’s a good feeling for these guys to be able to give back to the community in a different kind of way,” said Robinson. “We do community service along with companies who help with not just iJag work but also their schoolwork, help them understand what they need to do to graduate and what they expect you know walking out the door.”

Robinson says IJag helps students learn more about what’s coming after graduation. “It’s a program that that has helped our kids understand some of their goals that they want, help them to pursue them and open the door up for them to look at other things in the trade system, other things as far as college and just have different options that a lot of places don’t promote.” He hopes the program can be expanded to include the middle schools in the district.

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