KING COUNTY - — Back-to-school means Backpack Brigade is launching into full gear. It’s a nonprofit that helps feed kids in the Seattle area. Their focus is to help students who rely on school meals for food, but end up going hungry over the weekend.
Backpack Brigade says there’s a line of school districts waiting to sign up with their program. However, inflation and that growing demand means they need the community’s help more than ever. KIRO7 Cares partnered with Backpack Brigade to help feature its mission.
During KIRO7′s visit to their South Seattle warehouse, our crews were greeted by a swarm of upbeat and well-organized volunteers. A line of cars every week gets loaded up with crates of food to feed kids over the weekend, so they don’t go hungry.
“From Friday lunch to Monday, breakfast is a really long time for a little belly to have a big growl,” said Nichelle Hilton, the founder and executive director of Backpack Brigade.
Their mission is to end weekend hunger for the tens of thousands of students in Washington who don’t have enough food to eat over the weekend. Feeding America says one in six Washington kids face hunger.
Volunteers pack food bags, before it all gets loaded up by the crate into the cars of other volunteers, who deliver the meals straight to schools for kids to pick up on Fridays.
Volunteer, Paul Richards, delivers to schools in Renton.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Richards said. “It makes a big difference for the kids to have food,” he said.
Backpack Brigade feeds 4,500 children in King County every week. They serve 96 schools in four school districts – Renton, Highline, Seattle, and Bellevue.
“Hunger touches every zip code,” Hilton said. “And when I say that we serve Bellevue, people are like, no you don’t. Because they think, not my neighbor, not where I am,” Hilton said.
“But you don’t know - they could be, deciding between medicine and food, rent and food, layoffs,” she said.
The food that Backpack Brigade provides is the good stuff.
“We start with the kid. We make sure we’re using name-brand items because the kids need to know their worth. This isn’t a hand-me-down,” Hilton said.
The food is all approved by a nutritionist on board, and the meal bags are culturally sensitive.
“We have kosher, halal, gluten-free, vegan. We have Asian American, we have Hispanic,” Hilton said, describing their bag options. There’s also a “standard” bag, and refrigerated bag.
Each type of bag is color-coded, and all options contain about 3,000 calories of nonperishable food to help get kids through the whole weekend.
For example, the Asian American bag on the week KIRO7 visited contained a cup noodles, cookies, a heat-and-eat Pad Thai, sticky rice, sesame seed snacks, oatmeal, Pocky sticks, and trail mix, among other items.
Backpack Brigade buys in bulk, meaning each bag to feed a kid for the entire weekend costs $7.
Hilton says all admin costs for their staff of six people are covered by city contracts and grants, and buying the food relies primarily on donations.
“I can guarantee that every penny donated, it goes to purchasing food. So it’s not a hard sell,” Hilton said.
The need is so great, Hilton says districts are constantly knocking on their doors. Last school year, she says demand went up by nearly 40 percent.
“Requests from Kent, Tacoma, Tukwila, and Auburn,” Hilton said. “At the same time, we’re seeing 20-plus percent inflation on the same products,” she said.
Dealing with the challenges and all the volunteer hours are for the kids.
Juliana Moreno is a family advocate at Highlands and Renton Park elementary schools.
“Right now, families are hurting. Families are in great need,” Moreno said. She sees the impact of students getting weekend food first hand, and shared one example of a student struggling to focus in class.
“Because he was worried about where his next meal was going to come from. Being able to provide a bag for him every Friday, that gives him that security,” Moreno said. “That apprehension that he had was able to lower so he could focus,” she said.
Ryan Bunda is a counselor at McMicken Heights Elementary in the Highline School District. He says 40 percent or more of the students there qualify as low-income.
“A lot of our families are dealing with homelessness or instability with housing,” Bunda said. “Backpack Brigade has been an incredible resource for our families,” he said.
Backpack Brigade is hoping to expand to the Kent School District next – saying that the district has been asking for help for years now. But Hilton says there is a limiting factor.
“It is only money because I have these amazing volunteers. We have the infrastructure, we have the staff, we have the passion. We’re the best at what we do,” Hilton said. “I love the program and so I can’t wait to take it to the next school district,” she said.
You can sign up to volunteer or donate on the Backpack Brigade website.
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