BackPack Program to Re-Launch this November
The Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank’s BackPack program is set to resume this month after the program was paused due to the August floods. Low-income children are often at risk of missing meals over the weekend or during holidays when they are not in school and cannot receive free or reduced price lunches through the National School Lunch Program.
The BackPack program is simple. Backpacks are filled with a selection of nutritious, child friendly food items and then distributed to at-risk children enrolled in the program in select elementary schools. The backpacks are discreetly sent home with children from pre-K to fifth grade on Friday and returned empty on Monday morning.
When the Food Bank was flooded with 4 feet of water back in August, the nearly one million pounds of food was lost, 
including nearly 32,000 pounds of food designated specifically for the BackPack program. This program was designed to help alleviate the negative impact of children going without meals on weekends and holidays and to improve their overall well-being, as hunger does not take a break during weekends or holidays.
Last year, the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank served 12 elementary schools located in Pointe Coupee, Ascension, and East Baton Rouge Parishes.
Questions about the BackPack program? Contact James McGowan at james@brfoodbank.org.
2016 Supermarket Sweep Presented by Peoples Health
