This nationally-recognized program distributes nutritious food to children at the end of the school day, before weekends and/or school breaks.
Students are identified by school personnel as being food insecure by a variety of criteria. Over 80,400 children in the Foodbank’s area are eligible to receive free or reduced-price school lunches – a reliable indicator that hunger and food insecurity regularly threaten their respective lives. At present, the Foodbank serves 43 elementary schools in our area. During fiscal year 2011, we distributed 30,115 bags (equal to 150,575 meals) through this program.
About the BackPack Program:
Bags/backpacks filled with food that children take home on weekends. Food is child-friendly, non-perishable, and easily-consumed. Bags/backpacks are discretely distributed to children on the last day before the weekend or holiday vacation.
The BackPack Concept:
The BackPack Program concept was developed at the Arkansas Rice Depot, after a school nurse asked for help because hungry students were coming to her with stomachaches and dizziness. The local food bank began to provide the school children with groceries in non-descript backpacks to carry home. Locally, the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia piloted a BackPack Program for the first time on the Eastern Shore in 2008. The program received positive feedback and was wildly successful, spawning the establishment of a regionwide BackPack Program.
A Program of Feeding America administered by the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia
The BackPack Program became a pilot program in 1995. The National Council of Feeding America approved the BackPack Program as an official national program of the Network in July 2006. More than 140 Feeding America members operated more than 3,600 BackPack Programs and served more than 190,000 children in FY2009.
For more information, please contact Debbie Kleeger, Childhood Nutrition Manager at 757-314-4555 or dkleeger@foodbankonline.org or Whitney Weaver, Childhood Nutrition Assistant at 757-314-4549 or wweaver@foodbankonline.org