PUTNAM COUNTY, Fla. — Roxanne Gaedele says her first-grade son, who attends Browning Pearce Elementary, has been bringing home “Feed the Need” snack bags every weekend since kindergarten — with no issues until now.
The bags are part of a volunteer-run nonprofit program that provides food for students to take home over the weekend.
“Saturday, he asked my boyfriend if he could have something out of it, and my boyfriend took it out of the pantry and opened it, and the first thing he saw was the rat poison,” Gaedele said.
She says the poison was sealed inside its own package, but was mixed in with her child’s snacks. She immediately posted about the discovery on social media to warn other parents, then contacted the school district and the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.
“I’m assuming it was a mistake,” Gaedele said. “It kind of looks like a snack pouch of some sort, so I’m hoping it wasn’t intentional. But I feel like they weren’t paying attention at all. They definitely should be reading what they’re putting in the bags.”
Shortly after her post, the district sent a message to parents saying an “unintentional item” was found in one of the Feed the Need bags.
Gaedele says the principal told her staff searched the cafeteria storage room where the bags are kept, but didn’t find anything similar.
“She has no idea how it got in there, but she was pretty sure it wasn’t in there when it left the school,” Gaedele said.
In a statement to Action News Jax, Superintendent Rick Surrency said the district immediately began investigating after learning about the allegation on Sunday.
“Feed The Need is a not-for-profit organization that provides meals for underprivileged students during weekends and holiday breaks,” Surrency said. “Browning Pearce Elementary sends home bags for 26 students. Once alerted to the allegation, the school contacted all other families to ensure that no other bags contained rat poison packets. There were no irregularities reported.”
He added that the school does not have that brand of rat poison anywhere on campus, and an inspection of the food storage area found no other dangerous substances.
“Going forward, a member of the school’s lead team will inspect each bag before distribution,” Surrency said.
Surrency noted that Feed the Need has supported Putnam County students for the last nine years, helping roughly 600 food-insecure students weekly with nonperishable meals.
“This is an ongoing investigation,” he said. “The safety and well-being of our students remains our top priority.”
Gaedele says while she’s relieved no other bags were found with similar items, she still wants accountability.
“I feel like they should have done that to begin with,” she said. “Why would you have volunteers handle children’s food like that when you don’t even know who they are? I kinda don’t really want my kids to get snack packs anymore because of this — because if they’re that careless, it could happen again. Somebody needs to be accountable for this.”
Action News Jax reached out to Feed the Need of Putnam County, which packs and delivers the snack bags to schools, but the organization didn’t want to comment pending the investigation.
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