Backpack Food Program For Schools

The objective of our food backpack program is to fight childhood hunger in our community by filling the weekend food gap for children in need.

Backpack food program for schools. Partnering with local schools backpacks are distributed every friday so that children have meals for the weekend. Through the backpack program which is part of the food for kids programs children receive a backpack full of kid friendly non perishable and nutritious food on friday to sustain them over weekends and school holidays. Twenty two million children receive free or reduced price meals through the national school lunch program and the national school breakfast program. The backpack program helps alleviate child hunger by discreetly providing hungry children with backpacks full of nutritious and easy to prepare food on friday afternoons so they have food to eat throughout the weekend.

By providing kids with the nutrients they need when they re away from school they show up on monday morning healthy and ready to learn. Children at risk of weekend hunger receive a bag of food that is child friendly nutritious nonperishable and easy to eat. Feed more s backpack program provides children who don t have enough to eat with nutritious easy to prepare food at times when other resources are not available. For more than 15 years the feeding america backpack program has been helping children get the nutritious and easy to prepare food they need to get enough to eat on the weekends.

The backpack weekend food program inc. Every backpack food program is unique to the community and school it serves. For many of these children school meals may be the only meals they eat. Packaged meal kit provide nutritious solutions for backpack programs that are both cost effective and shelf stable for up to 6 months or more.

Although free and reduced breakfast and lunch programs provide significant nutritional benefits to students during the school day many disadvantaged children do not have access to regular meals when school is not in session. The concept is simple. In 2018 our backpack program distributed 39 321 backpacks containing 486 742 pounds of food to 1 258 children at 9 elementary schools in los angeles and compton unified school districts. Backpack programs prove to be a viable alternative for weekend food for children who might not have adequate food until monday morning in school.

We provide child friendly nutritious food directly to children in need over the weekends. In total the backpack program served 19 051 chronically hungry elementary school students attending 481 schools. Backpack programs provide kids with whole grains fruits vegetables and micronutrients needed for proper growth and development. The each backpack contained enough food for at least six nutritious meals to ensure that each child did not go hungry over the weekend.

All food is child friendly packaged in four set menus including milks proteins fruit vegetable cereals and 100 fruit juices. Backpack food programs aim to close the gap in meals for children between friday lunch and monday breakfast by providing food for children over breaks during the school year such as weekends and longer holidays. Today bags of food are assembled at more than. Last year the regional food bank saw a dramatic increase in the need for food assistance.

What happens when they go home over the weekend. Backpack food programs provide nutritious non perishable easy to prepare food to children to ensure they get enough food on weekends and holidays to avoid hunger when they can t depend on school meals. What is a backpack food program.