Grant's Backpack Program
The mission of the BackPack program is to meet the needs of chronically hungry children by providing them with kid friendly, easy to prepare food over weekends and school vacations when other resources are not available.
2015-16 is the sixth school year that Grant has partnered with the Food Bank for the Heartland in Omaha, and 40 students are offered a food backpack each week. The Food Bank of the Heartland delivers the supplies to the district’s maintenance building on the first Tuesday of each month. The building allocation is then delivered to the school through the interschool delivery system. Each individual pack is a zip-top bag fill with child-friendly, non perishable food; each bag provides two breakfasts, two entree meals, fruit cups, juice and shelf stable milk. The participating children take the packs home on Fridays of every month. If school is not held on a particular Friday, the backpack is sent home on the school day prior to the weekend.
In 2012-13, a local business, Norfolk Iron and Metal, began another backpack program to supplement the needs of our students. The program is entitled Blessings in a Backpack and the individual packs are similar to the Heartland food packs. The Blessings backpacks are delivered by volunteers to the school each Thursday and the totes are stored in the same location as the Heartland boxes. Each week 50 students receive backpacks from the Blessings program; the total number of students participating in both program is 90.
The identities of the students who participate in the program are kept confidential at Grant and neither the Food Bank of the Heartland or the Blessings program ever has knowledge of the names of the students who receive the packs. To avoid stigma, backpacks identifiable with the program are not distributed; children receive their food pack in their own backpacks. The school counselor and a community volunteer put the food packs into plastic grocery bags and deliver the sacks to the rooms during the lunch time on Thursday prior to the Friday distribution date; teachers then put the bags into the participating students’ backpack while the classes are at lunch on Friday.
The mission of the BackPack program is to meet the needs of chronically hungry children by providing them with kid friendly, easy to prepare food over weekends and school vacations when other resources are not available.
2015-16 is the sixth school year that Grant has partnered with the Food Bank for the Heartland in Omaha, and 40 students are offered a food backpack each week. The Food Bank of the Heartland delivers the supplies to the district’s maintenance building on the first Tuesday of each month. The building allocation is then delivered to the school through the interschool delivery system. Each individual pack is a zip-top bag fill with child-friendly, non perishable food; each bag provides two breakfasts, two entree meals, fruit cups, juice and shelf stable milk. The participating children take the packs home on Fridays of every month. If school is not held on a particular Friday, the backpack is sent home on the school day prior to the weekend.
In 2012-13, a local business, Norfolk Iron and Metal, began another backpack program to supplement the needs of our students. The program is entitled Blessings in a Backpack and the individual packs are similar to the Heartland food packs. The Blessings backpacks are delivered by volunteers to the school each Thursday and the totes are stored in the same location as the Heartland boxes. Each week 50 students receive backpacks from the Blessings program; the total number of students participating in both program is 90.
The identities of the students who participate in the program are kept confidential at Grant and neither the Food Bank of the Heartland or the Blessings program ever has knowledge of the names of the students who receive the packs. To avoid stigma, backpacks identifiable with the program are not distributed; children receive their food pack in their own backpacks. The school counselor and a community volunteer put the food packs into plastic grocery bags and deliver the sacks to the rooms during the lunch time on Thursday prior to the Friday distribution date; teachers then put the bags into the participating students’ backpack while the classes are at lunch on Friday.