The Backpack program of the Neighbors Pantry in Londonderry is a joint effort between the Neighbors Pantry and Floodbrook School. For the past two or three years, Neighborhood Connections has also been involved.
History
The backpack program began in 2014. Each Thursday volunteers would fill 10-15 actual backpacks with shelf stable food: granola bars, mac and cheese, canned fruit, pasta, tuna fish, cereal, etc. The backpacks would get delivered to the school on Friday morning.
The school nurse would then deliver them to the classrooms of the young people who could use extra food over the weekend.
The backpacks - ideally - came back to the school, were re-filled the following Thursday and went back out on Friday.
The advantages of this were that kids simply got on the bus with a second backpack - no big deal! The backpacks were all different in style and color and didn't draw attention to young people who were food insecure.
Drawbacks were that the backpacks did not always come back (we went through LOTS of backpacks in those years!) and for littler kids the backpacks were HEAVY.
Covid
When Covid hit we could no longer use backpacks because of cross contamination.
During Covid we tried having parents pick up bags of food at school, and then at the Second Congregational Church. This was only marginally successful. The good news is that when we got away from backpacks - we began to use large paper shopping bags - we could get more food out to the families.
Now
About 3-4 years ago we began partnering with Neighborhood Connections to deliver the food. This system works very well.
This is how it works!
The Neighbors Pantry purchases all the food for between 10-12 bags weekly. The items in the bags vary slightly from week to week (PB&J once each month for example!) but the food items largely mirror what we started with in terms of content 10 years ago.
Since the bags are delivered (and not carried by little kids or hauled on a school bus) we use very large paper shopping bags, this means each family gets quite a bit of food.
The bags (again, between 10-12 each week) are put together on Sunday by one of the volunteers. They are carried over to the church late on Thursday at which time fresh fruit is added. Friday morning a driver from Neighborhood Connections picks up the bags and delivers them to families (determined by the school) in our area. One bag is delivered by local clergy.
This happens 52 weeks a year. It's a lot of food!
The cost of the backpack program is about $200 each week - $10,000 each year. That has doubled in the last 3 years. That cost is ALL food... the labor (shopping, driving, putting the bags together) is donated!
Your support is most appreciated!
If you're interested in seeing the Neighbors Pantry and/or the backpack bags please reach out to Rev. Laurie Krooss, [email protected].
History
The backpack program began in 2014. Each Thursday volunteers would fill 10-15 actual backpacks with shelf stable food: granola bars, mac and cheese, canned fruit, pasta, tuna fish, cereal, etc. The backpacks would get delivered to the school on Friday morning.
The school nurse would then deliver them to the classrooms of the young people who could use extra food over the weekend.
The backpacks - ideally - came back to the school, were re-filled the following Thursday and went back out on Friday.
The advantages of this were that kids simply got on the bus with a second backpack - no big deal! The backpacks were all different in style and color and didn't draw attention to young people who were food insecure.
Drawbacks were that the backpacks did not always come back (we went through LOTS of backpacks in those years!) and for littler kids the backpacks were HEAVY.
Covid
When Covid hit we could no longer use backpacks because of cross contamination.
During Covid we tried having parents pick up bags of food at school, and then at the Second Congregational Church. This was only marginally successful. The good news is that when we got away from backpacks - we began to use large paper shopping bags - we could get more food out to the families.
Now
About 3-4 years ago we began partnering with Neighborhood Connections to deliver the food. This system works very well.
This is how it works!
The Neighbors Pantry purchases all the food for between 10-12 bags weekly. The items in the bags vary slightly from week to week (PB&J once each month for example!) but the food items largely mirror what we started with in terms of content 10 years ago.
Since the bags are delivered (and not carried by little kids or hauled on a school bus) we use very large paper shopping bags, this means each family gets quite a bit of food.
The bags (again, between 10-12 each week) are put together on Sunday by one of the volunteers. They are carried over to the church late on Thursday at which time fresh fruit is added. Friday morning a driver from Neighborhood Connections picks up the bags and delivers them to families (determined by the school) in our area. One bag is delivered by local clergy.
This happens 52 weeks a year. It's a lot of food!
The cost of the backpack program is about $200 each week - $10,000 each year. That has doubled in the last 3 years. That cost is ALL food... the labor (shopping, driving, putting the bags together) is donated!
Your support is most appreciated!
If you're interested in seeing the Neighbors Pantry and/or the backpack bags please reach out to Rev. Laurie Krooss, [email protected].