About Operation: Backpack

• Backpacks are filled with food that children take home on weekends. 
• The food is child-friendly, nonperishable, easily consumed and vitamin fortified.
• Backpacks are discreetly distributed to children on the last day before the weekend or holiday vacation.

  The Operation: Backpack Concept
  The Backpack Program concept was developed at the Arkansas Rice Depot in Little Rock after a school nurse asked for help because hungry students were coming to her with stomach aches and dizziness. The local food bank began to provide the school children with groceries in non-descript backpacks to carry home.

  More About This Program
  Donations for Operation: Backpack will be given to HACAP Food Reservoir. HACAP Food Resevoir is a member of America's Second Harvest, which provides the Backpack Program nationwide.

  • There are more than 110 America's Second Harvest network members operating BackPack Programs in 39 states and Washington D.C.
  • Nationally, members distribute as many as 35,000 backpacks each week.
  • This program is the fastest growing National Program within America's Second Harvest's network. Within the last year, the program has experinced close to 100 percent growth.

  Program Track Record
  A similar program is currently in place in Black Hawk County.  The Northeast Iowa Food Bank started Operation Family Pack in 2004 with 100 backpacks, 20 each at 5 schools.  Last month they served 2,397 kids at 53 sites.  Some backpacks went home multiple times last month – so NEIA Food Bank volunteers filled a reported 6,924 backpacks full of food in February of 2008.

About Childhood Hunger in Iowa
Total Estimated Population 1: 2,913,000
Percent of All Persons Below 100% of Poverty 1: 10.30%
Number of Children Under Age 18 Below 100% of Poverty 2: 101,000
Percent of Children Under Age 18 Below 100% of Poverty 2: 14.40%
Rate of Food Insecure Households (3-Year Average), 2003-2005 3: 10.90%
Rate of Food Insecure Households (3-Year Average), 2004-2006 4: 11.40%
Avg. Number of Food Insecure Children Under Age 18, 2003-2005 5: 120,271
Range of Food Insecure Children, 2003-2005 5: 17.30%

Learn more about child hunger

1) U.S. Census Bureau.Current Population Survey.Poverty Status by State: 2006 (POV46) Below 100% and 125% of Poverty, All Ages
2) U.S. Census Bureau.Current Population Survey.Poverty Status by State: 2006 (POV46) Below 100% and 125% of Poverty, All Persons Age 18 and Older
3) USDA.Economic Research Service. Household Food Security in the United States, 2005. ERR-29
4) USDA.Economic Research Service. Household Food Security in the United States, 2006. ERR-49
5) Cook, John T. Ph.D. "Child Food Insecurity in the United States: 2003 - 2005". America's Second Harvest - The Nation's Food Bank Network, October 2007.