The Back Pack Program

Did you know that September is Hunger Action Month? Food banks all across America will be trying to raise awareness and collect food to help feed the hungry people living in our country.

My boys’ schools have held food drives around the holidays for at least as long as they’ve attended. I always thought of it as a nice way to help people who were a little down on their luck and short on cash. How naïve I was. I didn’t realize that in certain areas of New Jersey there are children going hungry every weekend. The lunches these children eat in school under the free/reduced lunch program are either the only nutritious food they get or the only food they get at all.

The Back Pack Program is a national program that tries to ensure that children that have only been getting meals in school have something to eat at home on weekends. Each week food banks send participating schools food, which is then separated and distributed to the needy children in backpacks. The Food Bank even donates the backpacks, which students may keep and use. The program is the fastest growing national program within the America’s Second Harvest network, having grown almost 100%.

The Back Pack Program is handled on a local level by the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, the largest food bank in the state. According to the statistics I received, almost 40,000 packages of food were distributed to more than 1,280 children every week in five cities in Northern New Jersey during the 2006-07 school year. That is a staggering number that totally shocked me. By the time it clicked in my head that that figure was only for a part of New Jersey I was totally heartbroken.

The Back Pack program is completely dependent on the generosity of donors. I encourage everyone reading this to do what you can to support this program. Monetary donations are always needed and welcome. It only takes a moment to register to donate on their secure donation page. It’s only $15.40 to sponsor 1 child for 1 month, about 50 cents per day, less than a cup of coffee. I’m not asking everyone to sponsor one child for 1 month, although it would be nice. I’m just asking that those who can help in any small way do.

If you’re in the area, the program needs donations of backpacks as well as single servings/individual containers of the following foods:

• Peanut butter/jelly mix
• Stew/soup (pop top can)
• Heat & eat entrées (pop-top can)
• 100% Fruit juice boxes
• 1% Shelf stable milk (white & chocolate)
• Fruit cups
• Applesauce cups

To learn more about this and other child related programs run by the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, visit http://www.njfoodbank.org/kidsdivision.htm.

Please help if you are able. This is not a paid post or a sponsored post or an affiliate link. It is simply my way of trying to help draw attention to a big problem. If you happen to have read this and be thinking that it doesn’t effect you because you don’t live in New Jersey, think again. It effects the whole country. It’s a nationwide program. People,  these children need help. They didn’t ask to be hungry. They don’t deserve to be hungry. It’s our responsibility as a society to make sure children are taken care of. It’s our responsibility as people to do what is right. Please help. No matter whether you give to a NJ food bank or a food bank in your state, make no mistake, your help is needed.

Tags: children, hunger

Category: Life