Many of the children in our community that receive free or reduced-price lunches at school spend long, hungry hours trying to get through weekends, when meals may not be available.
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Each child enrolled in Backpack Buddies, the supplemental weekend feeding program of Second Harvest Community Food Bank, receives a healthy breakfast, a healthy lunch and a healthy snack each weekend during the school year. Second Harvest provides a variety of nutritious foods through Backpack Buddies.
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For this school year, we have over 2,500 children from 19 counties and over 50 schools, Head Start or after-school programs participating in Backpack Buddies. Currently, the program covers 36 weeks of the school year.
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The Backpack Buddies program needs YOU in order to serve healthy foods to community children every weekend. It costs only $199 to support a child for a full year in the Backpack Buddies program.
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To donate by check, please write “Backpack Buddies” on the memo line and mail your donation to:
Second Harvest Community Food Bank
915 Douglas Street, St. Joseph, MO 64505
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How It Works
Donors
Our wonderful donors provide funding for us to purchase Backpack Buddies.
Deliveries
Volunteers go out each week to distribute the Backpacks to local schools in our area.
Storage
School POCs store the Backpacks until they are ready for distribution day.
Distribution
The Backpacks are discreetly distributed by school administrators to children enrolled in the program.
Meals
Children take home their Backpacks and are able to have healthy meals that weekend!