Thousands of school-age children in north Alabama qualify for free or reduced price meals at school.  These meals sustain children during the week, but what happens when students go home for the weekend?  What happens during long holiday breaks?

Churches, corporations, volunteer groups, and the Food Bank work together with school officials to provide backpack programs.  On Fridays, these programs ensure two-day supplemental meal kits are discreetly slipped into the backpacks of children at risk of hunger over the weekend.  During holidays, many programs strive to give more.  The kits include ready-to-eat foods such as milk, cereal, fruit cups, pasta and sauce and more.  As a result, students arrive to school on Monday ready and able to learn without the painful distraction of hunger.