Backpack Buddies

The Community First Foundation is dedicated to finding a solution to childhood food security in our community and providing education to sustain the solution. Through their flagship program, Backpack Buddies, they ensure our city’s most vulnerable children do not go hungry on the weekends while simultaneously engaging students in local food security issues.

Children who count on school breakfast and lunch programs during the school week often go home to bare cupboards and empty fridges on the weekend so Backpack Buddies bridges this weekend hunger gap. On Friday afternoons, Backpack Buddies fills backpacks for vulnerable children with meals and snacks for an entire weekend. Each of these backpacks is made possible by children at Buddy Schools who raise funds, purchase food, and pack each bag of weekend meals for a child who needs it.

With SVP’s help, Backpack Buddies’ goal is to build capacity to ensure that by 2020 they can end weekend hunger for 5,000 children per year.

SVP Partners can help Backpack Buddies in:

• Strategic Planning – develop a new strategic plan
• Fundraising Planning – develop a fund development plan
• Marketing and Communication – develop a marketing and communications plan

SVP Grant Commitment: A first year grant of $60,000 was approved for Backpack Buddies with subsequent funding of $40,000 in year two and $20,000 in year three pending review.

President and Co-Founder: Joanne Griffiths
SVP Lead Partners: Ayeesha Lalji and Nicole Geyer