Vancouver Inner City Backpack Food Program

Overview:

Vancouver Inner-city Backpack Food Program

Inner-city children, from families that have the lowest median incomes in all of the country, do not have reliable consistent access to nutritious food staples. The primary objective of the Inner-city Backpack Food Program is to bridge the weekend gaps when school food programs are not running. School programs provide for the food needs of children during the week. This program will provide, kid friendly, nutritious snacks and meals for food insecure children (elementary schoolchildren and their siblings) over the weekend.

Inner-city children face food insecurity on a regular basis, which affects their behavior in the short term and their overall health and development in the long-term. Children who are hungry or undernourished are more likely to become sick, miss school, exhibit behavior problems, and fall behind in class. By offering a weekend food program for children, we will be able to provide many benefits including: increased ability to participate in recreation, close the gap of food insecurity over the weekend, help improve attention span and behavior during the week in school, mentoring interpersonal and communication skills to the children who received the backpacks, providing leadership and pre-employment training to youth volunteers.

The $75,000 funding is required, to provide for the purchase of food that cannot be obtained from a food bank, such as dairy, fresh fruits and vegetables, and food vouchers. It also provides for payment for a part-time coordinator and some minor administrative costs.

The backpack program goes beyond feeding nutritious food to the children to include; education for the families to help them to improve their choices for food, and giving families advice on locations to access these foods. The program will also reach out to the business community to gain support, and to the merchants that provide nutritious food. The program will provide a bridge between the merchants and the families to enable families to gain greater access to these foods