Backpack Buddies  $30,000

Over the weekend, children in food insecure households often do not eat properly, or at all. Working with over 100 schools in the BC Lower Mainland, on the Sunshine Coast, on Vancouver Island, and in Stewart, Backpack Buddies ensures these kids have their backpacks filled each Friday with all the food they need for the weekend. With the COVID-19 crisis, we have scaled up to help 3,000 kids with weekend meals including 9 meals, snacks, fruit, and juice.

Backpack Buddies partners with schools, community groups, and community support workers to get food directly into the hands of children. School administrators, teachers, and social workers identify those students who are going hungry and advise Backpack Buddies of how many meal bags they need each week for the students in their schools.

Backpack Buddies coordinates with food suppliers to deliver enough food to fill the backpacks with over 27,000 meals each week. Then, we work with staff and volunteers in our warehouses and packing sites in North Vancouver, Victoria, Port Coquitlam, and Port Hardy to make up 3,000 meal bags. Staff members provide confidential pick-up of meal bags for children in each school.

On average, each bag costs $15 to fill. From January to March, our program budget will be $540,000.