Food for Kids Backpacks

Lift Urban Portland expanded its Emergency Food Box Program to include the Food for Kids Backpack Program to keep low-income school children from going hungry over the weekend during the school year.

Feeding kids on the weekend...
Lift Urban Portland has other successful food gathering and distribution programs, but we are always looking into new ways to get needed food out to our community. So when we learned about the successful use of a weekend backpack program in Tillamook County, we decided to replicate that model locally at the Chapman Grade School where 25% of kids receive free or reduced-fee lunches lunch during the school week.

That percentage is high due to the number of children from Portland's downtown homeless shelters that attend the school. While the school provides after-school care, snacks, and tutoring for these kids during the week, the Lift UP Food for Kids Backpack Program provides the additional safety net to ensure these children don't go hungry over the weekend.

Watch a video testimonial: Click Here

Here's how it works...
We operate an Emergency Food Box program that provides emergency food for neighbors in need in NW Portland. The food is inventoried at our warehouse and boxes are distributed via our pantry. The food for the Food for Kids Backpack program is supplied from this inventory —or we purchase it at a reduced rate from the Oregon Food Bank

Lift Urban Portland volunteers come to the Lift UP Warehouse each week, pack the backpacks with food, and deliver them to Chapman Grade School in time for the kids to bring them home for the weekend. Additionally, the school principal notifies us of other children in need of a food backpack - even if these kids are not living in shelters. The kids return the backpacks on Mondays and a volunteer collects and returns them to the warehouse to start the cycle again!

Not just "snack packs"... we're talking Backpacks packed with nutritious food in small containers, such as:

Nuts
Pudding Cups
Jelly/jam
Cup of noodles
Fruit cups
SpaghettiO’s
Fruit snacks (low/no sugar)
Boxes of 100% fruit juice
Protein/granola bars
Tuna fish, canned
Chicken, canned
Pop Tarts (unfrosted)
Crackers
Dried fruit, raisin
Shelf-stable milk or soy milk
Cereal, non-sugar
Cans of soup, stew, and chili
Snack Packs' cheese & crackers
Trail mix