Sedona AZ (August 6, 2012) – The 2012-2013 school year will mark another year that much needed backpacks will be provided to students across the Verde Valley.

With one out of three Verde Valley children unsure of where their next meal will come from – and 61% on free or reduced school meals – the Verde Food Council and community partners are working to raise funds, collect backpacks, provide healthy kid-friendly foods, and deliver the collected and filled backpacks to schools with needy students.

The national weekend backpack program was started in 1995 in Little Rock, Arkansas by a concerned school nurse who saw large numbers of tired and sick children falling behind in school because of hunger and food scarcity in their homes. The nurse approached the local food bank and a local business to help launch the Food for Kids program that provides food for kids, discreetly in bags or backpacks to take home during the weekends when school meals are unavailable.

Today this national program serves thousands of hungry children. 

Principal Lisa Hirsch, West Sedona School said, “Each and every backpack is like handing a student gold. They get so excited and happy. Teachers have noticed that these children and the eighteen others who receive food for the weekend return on Monday more focused on their school work, energized and have fewer behavioral problems.” 

Verde Food Council, in partnership with volunteers from Christ Lutheran Church of Sedona, Jewish Community of Sedona and Verde Valley, United Methodist Church of Sedona, and Unity Church of Sedona has provided backpacks for children at West Sedona School, Big Park School and Beaver Creek. Each backpack provides a child with five healthy meals and three snacks for just under $10 per week /$400 per school year. 

Donate to local food banks

Sedona Community Food Bank, Cornville Mission Food Bank, and Beaver Creek Food Bank provide food, as well as a central location for the program volunteers to pack the foods each Thursday. The backpacks are delivered to the perspective schools for distribution on Fridays. 

The need throughout the Verde Valley is much greater than the current program’s reach. With over 4,300 students identified as hungry in the Verde Valley, last year the Food for Kids program reached approximately 110. Verde Food Council continues to seek out grants for this program, however, community help is need.

How can you help?

Each school program requires a minimum of three volunteer groups which commit to raising a minimum of $2,000 per school year and the volunteers to support the weekly packing and delivery of the backpacks.

Individuals, businesses and organizations can sponsor a child for $400 per school year or $40 per month through the Verde Food Council website.

Donations of peanut butter, snack size juice boxes and individually wrapped protein bars and healthy snacks can be donated directly to participating food banks.

Contact Amy Aossey at Amy@VerdeFood.org for more information on the Verde Valley Weekend Back Pack program and Child Hunger in your community. 

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