School BackPack Program in Livingston Parish to Receive Critical Funding
With the state of Louisiana leading the nation in child hunger, efforts to fund critical feeding programs for children have become more important than ever before. Business and industry leaders are taking note and investing in solutions.
Today, 1PointFive, a carbon capture, utilization and sequestration company, announced their support of the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank to fund their school BackPack Program in Livingston Parish. The BackPack Program alone will serve more than 500 children per month over the school year in partnership with the Full Tummy Project run by the Mighty Moms organization.
The BackPack Program provides food for school children who are at risk of missing meals when they are not in school over weekends and holidays when they do not have access to free or reduced meals through the National School Lunch Program. Backpacks are filled with child-friendly food items and are then distributed to elementary school children enrolled in the program. Backpacks are sent home with Pre-K through twelfth grade children on Friday and returned empty to school on Monday morning.
“We are truly grateful for 1PointFive’s financial commitment to help us reach school age children in Livingston Parish who often go to bed or to school hungry,” said Mike Manning, President and CEO of the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank. “Children struggle both physically and mentally when they are not properly nourished. This commitment allows us to reach more children who are missing meals and may be struggling in school as a result.”
“We are proud to support the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank and believe this initiative will help families in Livingston Parish by providing children with meals who might miss them otherwise,” said Doug Conquest, Vice President, 1PointFive, Sequestration. “This pledge demonstrates our commitment to being a good long-term neighbor and partner in the areas where our business operates.”
Per Feeding America’s annual hunger study, Livingston Parish has a food insecurity rate of 10.9%. In addition, statistics show 1 in 9 children in the parish are food insecure.
In the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank’s entire 11-parish service area, there is an annual meal gap of 17.2 million meals. This means that with all the federal assistance programs coupled with the services of the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank, there is still a gap of over 17 million meals a year still needed to be able to meet the needs of the food insecure.
Expanded Fleet to Bring Food to More Areas in Need
