CFBISD is thankful to have a partners like Weekend Back Packs and Metrocrest Social Services which provides take home weekend snacks for our students in need. At the end of every week,
children from several of our campuses are given a backpack full of kid-friendly, shelf-stable foods and a backpack to take them home in. The backpacks are provided by the Weekend Back Packs organization and the food is provided by Metrocrest Social Services. This program is completely free to schools and is provided by the Metrocrest Services at no cost to the students.
Students at Good Elementary, Blanton Elementary, Riverchase Elementary, LaVillita Elelmentary, McCoy Elementary, McWhorter Elementary and Furneaux Elementary are enrolled in the WBP program through a referral. Any faculty or staff member can refer a student whom they think is chronically hungry or food insecure. Once on the program, each student receives a backpack full of food every Friday of the school year. They are also able to receive extra sacks of food for younger siblings at home.
The sack of food that each child receives weekly contains shelf-stable, kid-friendly items. All of these items can be opened easily by a child, and they do not require refrigeration or heating. The WBP program strives to provide a high amount of nutrition in each backpack, and it is currently meeting approximately 60% of the weekend nutritional needs for each child in the program. Food 4 Kids supplies participating schools with nutritious, kid-friendly, self-serve food designed to fill a backpack and feed a child over the weekend during the school year.
The WBP program, which kicked off its first school year as a North Texas Food Bank program ( Food 4 Kids) in the spring of 2004, has expanded to over 350 schools in 11 counties throughout North Texas. Last year, the program served up to 11,000 children a week, with plans to continue expanding the program during the upcoming school years.
