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Tackling Childhood Hunger: The Impact of Backpack Programs · Talking FACS

• 0:01
  Welcome to Talking FACS, what you need to know about family,
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  food, finance, and fitness.
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  This nationally recognized, award-winning podcast is hosted by the University
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  of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program.
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  Our educators share research knowledge with individuals, families,
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  and communities to improve quality of life.
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  If you've listened to the show recently, you have heard us talking about the hunger
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  numbers in Kentucky, and these numbers are especially poignant with children.
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  Welcome to Talking FACS, where we share information you can use to strengthen
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  your family, your community, and our state.
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  I'm your host, Mindy McCulley, Extension Specialist for Instructional Support
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  with Family and Consumer Sciences Extension.
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  And so today, my guest, LaToya Drake, Extension Specialist for Food Access and
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  Engagement with the Kentucky Nutrition Education Program, is here to talk about
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  Backpack programs, fighting childhood hunger. Welcome, LaToya.
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  Hey, Mindy. I am so glad that we're going to talk about this because it is one
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  of those solutions to the hunger numbers in Kentucky, and especially for this
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  vulnerable population, our children.
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  Yeah, and it's one of those tangible solutions that folks can take action in
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  and really do something.
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  Let me tell you a story real quick, Mindy. I was out to eat with my friend for
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  brunch, who is an educator,
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  and she was telling me, I was telling her I was talking about the backpack program
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  on an upcoming podcast, and she was telling me a personal story that she had
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  with that program as a teacher in an elementary school because she'd never heard of the program.
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  But what happened in her discovery of it, she realized how impactful it was.
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  She had a child. It was a third grade classroom. We'll call Sami the child. Okay.
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  And her classmates went to lunch.
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  Sami returned from lunch, and she checked her backpack like she always did,
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  and she became distraught, crying to my friend, the teacher,
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  right? Like, what is going on?
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  My backpack is empty. The teacher's like, what's going on? What do you mean your backpack's empty?
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  She was like, Ms. Frisky, the family service coordinator, she always comes
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  by and she puts something in my backpack during lunch.
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  And my friend was like, what? So she called Ms. Frisky, and she was like,
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  yeah, I come by and I put the backpack program stuff in her lunch.
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  In her bag during lunch, and I was unable to do so today because I had a meeting,
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  but I'll be right there as soon as we wrap up, and I'll get it in there.
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  So what my friend, and so she was distraught, Sami was, because she was like,
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  I won't be able to help feed my sister this weekend.
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  So what was going on is that family resource service coordinator was popping
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  in during lunch when the other children were out of class and putting in a bag
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  of food into the child's backpack really discreetly so that she could take that
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  food home for the weekend.
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  This happens every Friday. So what this is, Mindy, is the backpack program.
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  And folks don't realize what that is or how impactful it is,
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  but it's feeding children like our little Sami over the weekend and their siblings
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  lots of the times when they're not getting those foods at school.
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  And it's amazing that it was so discreet that the teacher didn't even know it was happening.
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  The teacher didn't even know. Because backpack programs are providing nutritious,
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  easy-to-prepare food for children who rely on school meals but face hunger on
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  the weekends when they're at home. Right. When they're at school breaks, right?
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  Yeah, because we know so many children receive breakfast and lunch at school.
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  And that meal, those meals are so important to their nutrition and to their
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  learning because they need the food so that they are able to perform at.
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  In school to the best of their ability.
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  And I love that backpack programs are often community efforts, Mindy.
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  And they'll have food banks in the community, schools, churches,
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  and community groups like our, even our homemakers, lots of the times help out.
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  So it's a lot of folks coming together to get our community's children fed.
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  And I really love and appreciate that about that program.
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  And knowing children who have grown up into adults who have benefited from the backpack program,
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  and they will tell you stories about how important it was that they got that backpack every Friday.
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  And how it was important to make sure that the kids and their family got food.
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  And we're not saying that the parents weren't doing their job.
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  We're just saying that these children needed a little bit of extra boost.
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  Yep, and maybe parents were definitely doing a job, and maybe they're at work
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  during the weekend where they can make sure the child has access to food.
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  We love the Backpack Program because it's going to contain six to ten food items
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  that are going to provide enough food for one child at least,
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  for two breakfasts, two lunch, two dinners, and snacks.
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  So it's going to be compact food items, really just prepared and ready to go
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  for the littles to fix on their own or really independently, right?
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  Things like cereal and oatmeal and granola bars or mac and cheese cups or ramen
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  noodles that you can spruce up with vegetables, right, and make them more healthful.
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  So it's going to be those simple things that littles can make pretty much on
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  their own that they can get something in their belly.
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  If your children need access to the backpack program and aren't already participating,
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  how can you get more information?
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  You can start by reaching out to that your child's teacher, right?
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  You can reach out to the Family Resource and Youth Service Center in your school if they have one.
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  And that's also known as Friskies, right?
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  You can reach out to the Extension Office. They might be able to get you connected with those folks.
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  You can contact your local food banks or food pantries, because a bank is different
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  than a pantry, and that's something to take note of.
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  We have pantries across our communities, but those food banks are those large
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  organizations that are housing those massive quantities of food and then pushing
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  them out to the pantries.
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  So you can reach out to either of those folks. They're going to know how to get you connected.
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  You can also check with your local church and nonprofits, because many of those
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  folks host backpack programs.
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  And so all of these organizations work together to ensure that there is food
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  available to put in the backpacks every Friday afternoon.
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  Which is really lovely. And some of them are stuffing those backpacks too.
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  That is great. How can individuals or organizations support backpack programs in their communities?
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  So you can volunteer to help with these backpack programs. Once you get connected
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  with the food pantry, you can volunteer at the food pantry and do that.
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  You can help distribute the backpacks. You can contribute to the funds, right?
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  You can donate if you have access to that and are able to bless somebody else,
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  you can donate to the food bank, the food pantry.
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  And my community, the food bank is Feeding America, Kentucky's heartland.
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  But across Kentucky, you can connect with your local food bank by checking out
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  Feeding Kentucky and get connected that way.
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  You can host a backpack program. If you see a need in your community,
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  you can become a backpack distribution site and make that happen for your neighbors.
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  You can also use extension resources, materials like healthy food for healthy backpack programs.
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  And we've got healthy backpack recipes.
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  We've got low and no cook recipes labeled on our site, Mindy, planeatmove.com.
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  That's a new category. You can click on that and see some really easy recipes
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  that are going to be easy for the littles to make and easy for folks who have
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  hand issues with different abilities with their hands.
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  It's going to be low and no cook. So that's something to look into.
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  And check those out. There's lots of ways to get involved with your local backpack program.
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  You might have even noticed on your utility bill, a little place to check that
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  you want to make a donation to the backpack program.
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  Maybe you didn't know what that was. So hopefully now you do.
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  And so you can just check on your utility bill that you want to make a little
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  donation when you're paying your bill.
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  And I love that when you donate to the backpack program, you can pick the county
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  that you're donating to specifically. So that you can know that it's going back
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  to your neighbors and the kids in your community.
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  And I just think it's a really lovely way to give.
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  Yes. And so often we don't see the direct benefit of some of the giving that
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  we do for large national organizations.
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  But this is definitely one of those opportunities to give and actually see the
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  benefit because it impacts children.
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  Latoya, as always, thank you for sharing your vast knowledge and the impactful
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  work that you are doing with our listeners.
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  Thank you, Mindy. If you are just tuning in, you are listening to Talking FACS 00:09:14.623 --> 00:09:18.663 from the Martin Gatton College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment at the
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  University of Kentucky. We are available on all major podcast providers.
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  Thank you for listening to Talking FACS. We deliver programs focusing on nutrition,
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  health, resource management, family development, and civic engagement.
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  If you enjoyed today's podcast, have a question, or a show topic idea,
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  leave a like and a comment on Facebook at UKFCSEXT or send us an email at UKFCSEXT@UKY.EDU.
• 9:51
  Visit us online at fcs.uky.edu to learn more about the University of Kentucky
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  Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program or contact your local Extension
• 10:02
  agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.
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  We build strong families. We build Kentucky.
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  Music.