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In Northeast Louisiana over 60,000 children are enrolled in free and reduced lunch. The BackPack Program allows children to bring home nutritious food when other resources are not available, such as on the weekends or during school vacations. BackPacks are filled by volunteers with child-friendly, non-perishable, and vitamin fortified food. The backpacks are then discreetly distributed to the at-risk children at a local school. We are currently distributing 100 back packs, serving 181 children each week. The Backpack program concept originated in several places, one being the Arkansas Rice Depot in Little Rock. A school nurse at an inner-city school asked for help because hungry students were coming to her with stomach aches and dizziness. In response, the food bank began providing the school children groceries in non-descript backpacks to carry home, freeing them of the stigma of poverty that many low-income children face among their peers. The BackPack Program is a national program supported by America’s Second Harvest. There are over 110 BackPack Programs operating in 39 states and Washington D.C. The BackPack Program is the fastest growing program within the America ’s Second Harvest Network. Click here for BackPack Coordinator Monthly Report © 2008 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED FOOD BANK NORTHEAST LOUISIANA |
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