THE BACKSTORY

Almost 60% of the students in the Estero Bay area live beneath the poverty level. That means that while they enjoy meals Monday through Friday through the school system, the sad truth is that many of them do not have adequate food/nutrition in the evenings and on the weekends.

We believe that no child in our area should be going to bed hungry.

No child should be struggling to learn and focus at school because their tummies are hungry.

And because we believe this, we pack backpacks...

What we are doing

Starting in ____ of 2017 we committed to filling 12 backpacks each week for students who were otherwise not going to be eating on the weekends through a 'nutrition program'. By the end of the school year we were filling 40 backpacks each week. And we are currently being asked to help more schools in the area.

But we can't do this alone.

We are looking for people, organizations, churches, and/or families who care about the kids in their area to also help 'adopt' a school and with our help learn how to partner to help the kids in their area.

We are currently expanding beyond Del Mar, adding an additional 34 backpacks each week that need to be filled. There are more kids, but that is our current commitment as we see who of you come along side us and make it possible to commit to more.

Each backpack includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner for Saturday and Sunday. Along with snacks and juice or milk.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

1. Sponsor a child or a school financially.

2. Donate food (see list of non perishables here), time packing backpacks, or help coordinate one of our locations.

3. Tell others.

ADOPT A CHILD, FILL BACKPACKS:

At this point it costs us about $12 to fill a backpack for the weekend for each child. You can give to cover a child for the month, the semester, or entire school year. This 2018-2019 school year we have 75 students we are taking care of which for the school year (excluding summer school) is $34,200.

You can help 1 child for a month ($48), a semester ($228), or for the entire school year ($456).