In collaboration with schools in our 16 county service area, the BackPack Program provides chronically hungry children with backpacks filled with non-perishable, nutritious, kid-friendly, shelf-stable food to sustain them over weekends and school holidays.
The BackPack Program started in 2004 by distributing 100 backpacks to 5 schools in the Waterloo School District. During the 2021-2022 school year, the BackPack program provided over 100,000 bags of food to kids at 159 schools in 16 counties.
Identify
Chronically hungry students are identified by staff members at participating schools.
Assemble
Each food sack is pre-assembled at the Northeast Iowa Food Bank by volunteers throughout the month.
Deliver
Volunteers and staff of the Northeast Iowa Food Bank then delivers pre-assembled food sacks for those children to take home on Friday afternoons.
No more hungry weekends with these take home bags filled with meals and snacks.