“I just want to thank you for this program. Our family has struggled so hard over the last few years and this simple act of generosity has been a tremendous help.”
We serve a total of 90 schools in all three of our school-year meal programs, which include our Backpacks, Kid-Friendly Food Boxes provided by the Clark County Food Bank, and Fresh Food Pantries. (Note that some schools receive food from multiple programs.)
90 Backpack Schools: 1,200+ bags of non-perishable food are packed on Thursdays during the school year to help provide food to low-income families over the weekend when there is no access to school lunch. The bags are 6–8 pounds, and contain: fruit or vegetable, boxed meal or mac n cheese, canned chili or soup, canned protein, rice or pasta, and a snack. These bags alternate with the food boxes for Evergreen and Vancouver School Districts, but are delivered weekly to Battle Ground School District, Woodland School District, and EOCF Headstart locations.
Our goal is to provide the staples needed for two family meals; items are coordinated so that families can create a complete and nutritious meal. We also provide 45 ‘hotel’ bags a week that are made up of foods that do not require a can opener or a kitchen to prepare. Our goal with the hotel bags is to support families and children facing homelessness. These include unaccompanied youth, families living in a car, children or families who are couch surfing, and many other situations in which a child or family might find themselves without a kitchen or utensils.
Most Needed Items for Our Backpack Program
Shelf-stable, protein-rich foods are the single-best food items to donate. Canned or easy-open meats (chicken, tuna fish, ham, etc.) canned chili and high-protein soups are easy to transport and simple to prepare. These items are not only nutritious, but are also ideal for families who do not have access to a stove for cooking, as they can be heated in a microwave. Click below for examples of shelf-stable protein items.
Put Protein First: A List of Needed Shelf-Stable, Protein Items
Note: Space in bags is limited so smaller items are preferred and allow us to pack more into each bag. As these are also being distributed to young children, we do not include any glass in the bags, so plastic jars and containers are preferred.
The bags are given out on Fridays to ensure that children, and their families, have nutritious food to eat over the weekend. The Backpack Program operates under anonymity; we do this to protect the privacy of the children and their families as hunger and poverty are often highly stigmatized in our society.
The Backpack Program operates in large part due to the generosity of volunteers.
18 Fresh Food Pantries: 18 local schools receive fresh produce, dairy, eggs, and bread once per month. Share partners with the Clark County Food Bank to deliver fresh, nutritionally-dense food to under served populations in the community through school pantries. This school year, school families can attend multiple fresh food pantries as often as they need to feed their household.
27 Food Boxes: Through a partnership with the Clark County Food Bank, 27 Kid-Friendly Food Boxes are delivered each week in the Evergreen and Vancouver School Districts. These boxes are filled with snacks and easy to prepare foods.
Thinking of having a food drive for Share?
We can make it easy with our list of top ten food needs. Please contact Miriam Moreno, Volunteer & Nutrition Programs Coordinator, at (360) 553-8064 or mmoreno@sharevancouver.org.
You can also contact Miriam with additional questions about Share’s Backpack program.
This project was supported by Grant No. F22-32101-006 awarded by Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Points of view in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the Department of Health and Human Services. Grant funds are administered by the Community Services Block Grant Office, Washington State Department of Commerce.
