Backpack Buddies sponsors want to send hunger packing again this year for 60 of the Gallatin School District’s neediest children.
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Backpack Buddies is a supplemental food program that provides six balanced weekend meals and two healthy snacks to students from food-insecure homes. Over 50% of the children in the Gallatin school district qualify for free or reduced lunches.
School staff see the results of hunger firsthand. Hungry children are tired, grumpy and distracted in class.
“We’ve had students get off the bus stating they haven’t had breakfast and are hungry,” says Shonna Morrison, elementary school counselor. “We try to make sure they don’t head to class without something to eat. Otherwise, they won’t be able to focus and class work suffers.”
While the school cafeteria can provide stable meals during the five-day school week, what happens when the weekend rolls around?
Backpack Buddies is a supplemental weekend feeding program of Second Harvest Community Food Bank. Teachers will stuff the student’s backpack full of kid-friendly meals, fresh, canned and packaged foods — foods that make up a healthy breakfast, lunch and snack, foods that the young people can open and prepare themselves in case there’s nobody home to help.
Students receive the food each weekend during the school year, including extended breaks. Four rotating menus are used during the year to provide a variety of nutritious items.
Last year Gallatin had over 60 children sign up for the program and about the same number have signed up this year. It’s not just elementary students who participate. Students in kindergarten through 12th grade may sign up for the program.
The junior high/high school version of Backpack Buddies is more expensive than elementary, so school staff took it upon themselves to shop and purchase the food and package it for this age group. Joyce Cox, R-5 high school counselor, worked in conjunction with FBLA to make this happen, adding to the time and investment needed to make the program work at Gallatin.
“Last year the high school students really looked forward to getting that bag of food on Friday afternoons,” says Mrs. Cox. “As the year went on, they told me what items they really liked, so I would remember to include them. Teenagers are always hungry, and it was good to know that these students had nutritious items and fun snacks to get them through the weekends.”
The cost to sponsor a child for an entire year is $175, about $25 more per child than last year. Any amount of money, large or small, will be put together to sponsor the children.
“This year we will need to raise approximately $10,500 to continue to support the same number of children in our school district,” says Ms. Holcomb, Gallatin R-5 business education teacher and FBLA sponsor.