The Back Pack Program

This program provides children at risk of hunger with a weekly backpack full of nutritious, kid-friendly, shelf-stable food to get them through the weekend, when school meals are not available. Teachers and counselors identify eligible children. On Fridays (or the school week's end), backpacks are stocked with food and discreetly distributed to the children at schools or after-school programs.

Thanks to funding from the Hylite Corporation, American Idol Gives Back, Bath Presbyterian Church, the employees of Augusta National, Georgia SNAP and individual donors, students in ten counties are receiving BackPack products during the 2009-10 school year. The counties include Aiken, Burke, Columbia, Greene, Hancock, Jenkins, Johnson, Putnam, Richmond and Screven. The program is running in schools where the rate of students eligible for free and reduced lunch averages more than 50%. The BackPack Program:

•    Ensures that children at risk of hunger will have enough to eat during weekends and school  breaks
•    Currently feeds 1,260 students a week
•    Alongside Children's Harvest, helps teach kids to break the cycle of dependence on emergency food sources

We are working to continue the BackPack program in existing counties. We urgently need your help to maintain and expand this program! Just $4 provides one student with a BackPack for the weekend; $128 will ensure one student receives weekly BackPacks for a whole school year! For more information about the BackPack Program and how you can help, please contact the Children's Program Coordinator, Kristoffer Thompson, at (706) 736-1199 x208.

If you are interested in learning more about the BackPack Program, please take a moment to watch the video below.