FARGO - A program providing nutritious food to low-income schoolchildren on the weekends will nearly double in size this year, the Great Plains Food Bank announced Thursday.
The Cass Clay BackPack program will serve 750 children living with or at immediate risk of hunger. That's a 41 percent increase over the 530 students served last year, the food bank said.
During the 2010-11 school year, 7,063 students in the Fargo, West Fargo and Moorhead school districts qualified for free or reduced cost school lunches. The BackPack program is designed to help those children who might otherwise fail to get needed nutrition on the weekends.
Food packages are filled with child-friendly nonperishable food and then given to children in the program just before the weekend or a school holiday.
"Hungry children don't learn as well at school, which in turn limits their potential and productivity as adults. We believe that when a child is fed, they are equipped to learn, grow and dream of a future filled with opportunity. This program makes sense," Melissa Sobolik, director of member and client services for Great Plains Food Bank said in a news release.
ADVERTISEMENT
The program is changing lives, said Nadine Moon, the Title I parent coordinator and supporter of the BackPack program for Moorhead's Robert Asp and Ellen Hopkins elementary schools.
"For some children participating in the program, this food is the difference between eating or not. They are so excited to receive their bags on Fridays," Moon said.
It costs $4.25 to fill a backpack with juice, milk, fruit and food for four meals and snacks. To sponsor a child for the entire school year, it costs $162, the Food Bank said.
The 14 schools participating in the program are:
Cheney Middle School, Eastwood Elementary, L.E. Berger Elementary, Lodoen Center, Sheyenne Ninth Grade Center and the high school in West Fargo.
Ellen Hopkins Elementary, Robert Asp Elementary and S.G. Reinertson Elementary in Moorhead.
Jefferson Elementary, Lincoln Elementary, Madison Elementary, McKinley Elementary and Horace Mann Elementary in Fargo.
Great Plains Food Bank is a program of Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota.
