As a student, school can be difficult enough without having to worry about whether or not you or your family have enough to eat over the weekend. Many Northland children miss important meals like their free school breakfast and lunch, which adds stress on local families.
Thanks to your generous support of our BackPack Program, more than 1,000 children receive weekend food at nearly 50 NE Minnesota and NW Wisconsin schools each week. One such child, a pre-kindergartner, receives his ‘BackPack’ every Thursday and loves getting his food so much he insists on carrying it around with him from class to class.
As Lowell Elementary School Social Emotional Learning Specialist Taylor Walling shares, “We can’t expect kids to perform academically or socially in school if they don’t have their basic needs met. The BackPack Program offers families and students the security of knowing they don’t have to worry as much about food over the weekend.”
Child food insecurity is higher in our region than the state averages in both Minnesota and Wisconsin. But thanks to your invaluable contributions, more than 30,000 weekend bags of food make it to local children and families each year, filling an important meal gap in their homes.
We couldn’t operate our BackPack Program without partners like you. Here’s a sampling of those who are generously supporting our hunger-relief work:
- Cliffs Foundation
- Halvor Lines
- Kari Toyota
- Super One Foods
- Upper Lakes Foods