Food Bank Hunger Awareness Story: Raleigh, NC

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Submitted by the Interfaith Food Shuttle of Raleigh, NC

Upon entering the school building on “meet the teacher” day (1st time at school for the new school year), a young student who participated in Backpack Buddies the previous year asked me, “When do the Backpack buddies start again?”. He asked me every day until it actually started this year. He always remembers to pick it up and he always remembers to turn it in on the first day of the next week.

“I have had a parent call to ask me if I had any of the food left over from the backpacks from the previous week. She only had $4.00 and needed some milk for her toddler. She always uses the boxed milk for him that comes in the backpack that the older child brings home each week.”

A family support worker told me that she had been at the home of some brothers who participated in the program on several days when they arrived home from school. She called me to tell me, “you would think it is Christmas because they cannot wait to open the bags up and see what food they have that week! They especially like the individual packs of peanut butter.”

When asking a 1st grade student what type of food he ate on the weekend, he replied “oh…we don’t eat on the weekend”. When I asked him if he would like to be a “Backpack Buddy” and explained the program to him, he started jumping up and down with an excited look on his face and exclaimed “YES, YES, YES!”