The Food Bank BackPack Program began during the 2004-05 school year at Clinton Elementary School, sending home food-filled backpacks on Friday afternoons with 50 kids. The program quickly took off and now is serving hundreds of students. The BackPack Program’s mission is to help alleviate child hunger in southeast Nebraska by providing hungry children with nutritious and easy to prepare food at times when other resources are not available, such as weekends and school vacations.

The BackPack Program provides backpacks filled with food to students in need of food over the weekend.  The program primarily targets students who qualify for their school’s Free Lunch Program. Many of these students rely on their school’s breakfasts and lunches for their most nutritious meals of the day. In some cases, these are their only meals of the day. These students are then faced with a food crisis over the weekend. The BackPack Program is a way to help these students and their families until students return to school on Monday.

In addition the Food Bank sponsors the LPS Emergency Pantry in cooperation with Leadership Lincoln and Lincoln Public Schools. Families in need of food can be referred to the Emergency Pantry by their school's guidance counselor or principal.

Currently, the BackPack Program sends 2,066 backpacks home to students on Friday afternoons in 22 Lincoln Public Schools, 4 Lincoln Catholic Schools and 12 rural communities in Southeast Nebraska. Click here for a complete list of schools served.

The program rotates six different menus throughout the school year.  The goal of the BackPack Program is to supply a student and his or her family with four to five meals per menu. Although the Food Bank BackPack Program serves over 2,000 children, the need is great and there are still more hungry children in our community. Census figures for 2006 reveal there are 8,741 children under the age of 18 living below the poverty line in Lancaster County.  During the 2008-2009 school year, 5,584 elementary students were enrolled in the free lunch program in the Lincoln Public Schools.

You can help support the BackPack Program in a number of ways. Join the Food Bank, Lincoln Public Schools, and our rural communities in our work to feed hungry children and their families.

Click here for the Feeding America on the BackPack program

Click here for a 2009-10 Food Bank BackPack Flyer

Click here for a BackPack shopping List

Learn about the BackPack Extra Mile Walk