About the Backpack Buddies Program

For most students, Friday afternoon means freedom. For some of our students, it means the last reliable meal until Monday morning.

The Backpack Buddies program exists to close that gap. Each week during the school year, students facing food insecurity go home with a discreet bag of kid-friendly, shelf-stable food to carry them through the weekend. The program is led by the Aiken Church of Christ, and the AES PTO is proud to serve as one of its partners.

A Need That Grows All Year

The program typically begins each school year serving 15 to 20 students. By spring, that number grows to 45 to 50 as teachers and staff identify more children in need. Every student in the program is identified through the school based on demonstrated need, and participation is kept confidential to protect each child's dignity.

What Goes Home Each Week

Every weekly bag contains ten items chosen to be easy for a child to prepare and enjoy:

• 1 protein (tuna or chicken pouch, or Vienna sausages)

• 1 fruit

• 1 noodle meal (ramen, macaroni and cheese, or similar)

• 2 granola bars

• 1 cereal or toaster pastry

• 1 oatmeal

• 1 grits

• 1 chips or snack item

• 1 fruit gummies

For long weekends and school holidays, every bag is double-packed so no child goes without.

Feeding Families Over the Breaks

School breaks are the hardest stretch for families counting on school meals. For extended holidays and breaks, the program sends home a full meal for the whole family. A family meal might be spaghetti with meat sauce and fresh bread, or canned chicken with gravy, green beans, yams, and stuffing. A corporate sponsor provides cookies or brownies so every family meal ends with dessert.

The Impact, By the Numbers

This past year alone, the program provided:

• 1,000+ weekend meal bags for students

• 150+ family meals for holidays and breaks

• More than 10,000 individual food items, packed by hand by our volunteer team

Every bag is assembled weekly by a dedicated packing team that also handles the larger holiday packs.

Become a Buddy

The program is always looking for new buddies, whether to fill a spot left by a departing partner or to cover an item the shelves are short on. There is a place for every kind of help:

• Donate food items from the weekly bag list above

• Give financially to support weekly bags and holiday family meals

• Join the packing team that assembles bags each week

To get involved or learn what the program needs most right now, contact the AES PTO at aikenelementarypto@gmail.com.

Hunger doesn't take weekends off. Thanks to this community, neither do we.