About the BackPack Program:

• Backpacks filled with food that children take home on weekends
• Food is child-friendly, nonperishable, easily consumed and vitamin fortified
• Backpacks are discreetly distributed to children on the last day before the weekend

The BackPack Concept
The BackPack Program concept was developed at the Arkansas Rice Depot in Little Rock after a school nurse asked for help because hungry students were coming to her with stomach aches and dizziness. The local food bank began to provide the school children with groceries in non-descript backpacks to carry home.

More about this Program
In addition to providing nutritious food to school children in need, some BackPack programs provide extra food for younger siblings at home and others operate during the summer months when children are out of school and have limited access to free or reduced-priced meals.

• There are more than 60 America's Second Harvest Network Members operating BackPack Programs in 30 states and Washington, D.C.
• Each program distributes an average of 40 backpacks per week to nine sites.
• Nationally, food banks distribute as many as 25,000 backpacks each week.

Community Harvest Food Bank currently distributes 144 backpacks per week on a year 'round basis to recipients at seven sites in southeastern Fort Wayne, generously funded by the  John S. & James L. Knight Foundation, and an additional 40 backpacks at two Fort Wayne locations funded by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Without this funding there would be no local BackPack Program.