GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT.

Los Angeles Regional Foodbank: Backpack Program

The Los Angeles Regional Foodbank collects and distributes food to needy communities in Los Angeles and energizes the public to support hunger relief. For more information visit www.lafightshunger.org.

For many low-income children in Los Angeles County, hunger pains do not stop on weekends. The meals children receive at school under subsidized lunch and snack programs may be the only meals the children eat all week.

Working with The Marcled Foundation, the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank began the BackPack Program in fall 2006 to send elementary school students home over the weekend with a backpack full of healthy, kid-friendly meals, snacks, nutritional information and food vouchers.

The vouchers for milk, bread and fresh fruits and vegetables provide food that rounds out the meals, helping parents with growing children serve healthy meals. While shopping at a local supermarket with her mother, one BackPack Program recipient, age 8, helped buy the family groceries. The little girl stepped up to the cashier and said, “Mom, I can pay for this. You pay for food all the time. It’s my turn.” The girl presented the food vouchers and purchased fresh fruit and milk.

Since the start of the program, teachers and counselors at the participating elementary schools say that the extra food helps reduce the number of students headed to the nurse’s office with hunger pains. Before the BackPack Program, chronically hungry children suffered from headaches, stomachaches and dizziness that interfered with their schoolwork.

In addition to their regular distributions, the BackPack program provides extra food and supplies to children for special occasions. In December 2007, the program distributed 450 whole chickens and recipes for the holidays. The children were also given a backpack loaded with hats, scarves, gloves and coloring books for a fun winter break.

One parent said the backpack full of food and gifts helped make time with the family even more special. “This is a blessing. In one of our greatest times of need, the school and the Foodbank were here and answered my prayers,” she said. “This is one less thing I have to worry about being a single mother.”

During the summer of 2009 the program reached 600 children with each distribution, but the need is far greater. More than one in seven residents of Los Angeles County are at risk for hunger (up from one in ten last year), and 30% of those are children.