Unfortunately, many children in our communities are faced with the realities of food insecurity and hunger. While they have access to meals at school, their families often struggle to provide nutritious meals at home. While the Food Bank for Larimer County is an excellent and critical resource, many families are challenged to access this resource due to transportation issues or employment restrictions. McBackpack provides a critical avenue for families by delivering food to schools throughout the Poudre School District (PSD) which in turn is then sent home with students.
McBackpack, Inc. is a completely volunteer-run non-profit which raises money (95% of all donations go directly to the purchase of food) to purchase healthy meals and snacks, packs them into bags for individual students, and then delivers those bags to schools in Fort Collins and neighboring communities for distribution to all students identified by trained PSD personnel as being food insecure. The primary goal of the program is to fulfill every request received from PSD. Last year several pre-school programs were added such that McBackpack now supports children from pre-school through high school across the Poudre School District.
Your support would go directly toward purchasing food for children and their families in our local community! At this time, approximately 500 bags are being requested and provided each week and each bag of food that we provide contains ingredients for approximately three meals and snacks.
Additional information about McBackpack and ways to get involved may be found on our website: https://mcbackpack.org/
Believing children are more able to learn when well-nourished, McBackpack provides nutritional food to children and families within the Poudre School District who may otherwise go without food over the weekend.
McBackpack, Inc. began in 2007 with a conversation between the Co-Founders and representatives of the McKinney-Vento Program with the Poudre School District (PSD). During this conversation a need was identified to provide supplemental snacks and meals for students across the district who were experiencing food insecurity. Up until this point, teachers were often purchasing food to keep on hand for students when they recognized signs of hunger and malnourishment.
McBackpack began with a few volunteers and a few bags of food that were packed in members' homes and delivered to several schools across the district. Seventeen years later, McBackpack is now delivering 450-550 bags of food each week that PSD is in session. The organization has grown from just a few volunteers to more than 70 dedicated volunteers, a volunteer Board of Directors (McBackpack has no paid employees) and committed partnerships with the Food Bank of Larimer County, Poudre School District, and First Presbyterian Church. Each bag of food (approximately 7-8 lbs.) has nutritious snacks such as fruit, beef sticks (donated weekly by Beefsticks for Backpacks), protein/granola bars and the ingredients for approximately 3 meals (depending on the size of a family).
McBackpack’s goal has always been to provide food for the weekend when food is often less accessible for the families served and to fulfill each request received. Students and families facing food insecurity across the Poudre School District are identified by the McKinney-Vento staff members in each school and bags of food are delivered to schools for children/families to take home.
Organization name
McBackpack, Inc
other names
McBackpack
2007
Tax id (EIN)
46-2075466
Category
Food, Agriculture & Nutrition, Public & Societal Benefit, Human Services
Organization Size
Small Organization
Address
P.O. Box 2082Mailing
P.O. Box 2082Larimer County, CO, US
Fort Collins, CO, US
Wellington, CO, US, 80549
Timnath, CO, US
Bellvue, CO, US, 80512