BACKPACK BUDDIES

Students go home with book bags of food

KIMBERLY BELLAMY

Instead of going home with a backpack full of books or pencils, some students are going home with a backpack full of food each week thanks to a program called Backpack Buddies.

A non-profit organization called Inter-Faith Food Shuttle provides perishable food to a portion of students at Princeville Montessori, Roberson Center for Educational Achievement and Stocks Elementary.

Schools identify which students could use the additional food, and those who qualify are given a backpack each Friday to ensure they’re getting meals on the weekends. The students return the backpack on Mondays when they come back to school.

“We use the free and reduced lunch list, and staff members make referrals from that list,” said Amy Marshall-Brown, principal of Princeville Montessori.

Items included in the backpacks include canned meats, canned stews, canned fruit, packaged noodles, breakfast food, healthy snacks, 100 percent juice boxes, and shelf-stable milk.

“The children are excited about receiving them. It’s definitely a good program that’s impacted the students that have qualified for it,” Marshall-Brown said.

Backpack Buddies is one of the many programs offered by Inter-Faith Food Shuttle to help decrease the amount people that are hungry because of homelessness or other factors.

The organization recovers, prepares and distributes food to those in need to locations across North Carolina.

“We think of ourselves as a food bank on wheels,” said Jason Boone, communications director.

Other programs offered include food rescue and distribution, children’s programs, Culinary Job Training program, Operation Frontline, and Farms and Community Gardens.

In addition to the schools, Inter-Faith Food Shuttle also provides assistance to the Community Enrichment Organization, New Jerusalem Pentecostal, Positive Generation in Christ, Regeneration Development Group, and Tarboro Community Outreach, all located in Edgecombe County.

Boone said that from January to September this year, the organization has distributed 100,000 pounds of food in Edgecombe, an average of about 2,700 pounds a week.

Inter-Faith Food Shuttle is based in Raleigh, but has employees to help them deliver the large amount of food locally.

Two of the employees that work with Backpack Buddies shared similar testimonies of why they decided to work with the program.

“I’m always trying to find a way I can help, because I came from not a poor background, but we didn’t have a lot,” said Nick Robertson, coordinator of Backpack Buddies.

“I just love to help people that are in need of food or whatever else. I told them how much I would love to help,” said Eric Silver, driver for Inter-Faith Food Shuttle.

The main contributor to the organization is the North Carolina State Farmers Market, but they accept donations from other resources.

“We are on track to rescue about 6 million pounds this year,” Boone said.

Since the organization was established in 1989, 50 million pounds of food has been rescued.

To find out more about the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, visit www.foodshuttle.org.

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