Backpack Buddies

About

Many children rely heavily on school meal programs, but over the weekend may not eat at all until school starts again on Monday. This is ‘the weekend hunger gap.’ Backpack Buddies addresses this crisis by filling backpacks every Friday for students in need with meals and snacks to last the weekend. For a cost of only $25, Backpack Buddies sends a child home with a bag full of kid-approved meals, snacks, and produce – enough to last the entire weekend.

In BC, thousands of families struggle to put food on the table every day, and hunger can set a child back for life. Backpack Buddies is tackling childhood hunger in BC by putting food directly into the hands of those children who need it most.

In September 2012, Backpack Buddies made its first delivery of 20 bags of food to hungry children at a school in East Vancouver. The mission, to ensure food security for every vulnerable child in British Columbia.

Now Backpack Buddies is delivered all across BC. From Alert Bay to Fernie and Victoria to Fort St. John, we serve 6,000 children in over 73 communities through 380 schools and community partners, working to end childhood food insecurity through the weekend meal program. With 2000 kids on the wait list and the compassion of a caring community, together we will continue to expand more children BC wide, and keeping our promise to be there for them as long as they need us.