1 in 6 children in north carolina is at risk of hunger.

Backpack Buddies provide approximately 3,000 children weekend meals.

BackPack Buddies is designed to provide children experiencing food insecurity with nutritious, kid-friendly, pre-packed meals for the weekend—when they would not have access to a school’s free lunch and breakfast. The Food Shuttle works with school guidance counselors and social workers across our seven-county service area to help identify students with the greatest risk of food insecurity to be recipients of BackPack Buddies.

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Fast Facts

What We Do

  • Deliver BackPack Buddies bags to nearly 2,500 children each week - with plans to serve 3,000 children weekly in 2024

  • Partner with 71 elementary schools across our seven-county service area

  • Distribute kid-friendly, pre-packed bags with healthy, nutritious food for the weekend

  • Last Fiscal Year: 72,642 BackPack Buddies bags were delivered and 2,587 students were served.

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So what's in a backpack buddies Bag?

  • Each BackPack Buddies bag includes enough food to feed one elementary school child four meals over a weekend.

  • A BackPack Buddies bag contains two kid-friendly, easy-open proteins, two breakfasts, two fruits, two milks, and two 100% fruit juices.

When asking a 1st grade student what type of food he ate on the weekend, he replied ‘oh… we don’t eat on the weekend.’ When I asked him if he would like to be a ‘BackPack Buddy’ and explained the program to him, he started jumping up and down with an excited look on his face and exclaimed ‘YES, YES, YES!’”

— BackPack Buddies Coordinator

Our Community Partners

 
 

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