Sheriff’s Office participated in Backpack Program

By Shannon Weidemann (McKone) on Monday, October 11th, 2021 in Eastern/Southeast Oregon News More Top Stories

BAKER CITY – Baker County Sheriff’s Office personnel recently participated in The Backpack Program.

The program, according to the First Presbyterian Church in Baker City was “established in 2010, provides supplemental weekend food for students in the Baker 5J School District who are in need and are at risk. The program provides a bag of non-perishable food to children that they can take home and eat when school meal programs are unavailable. These bags are distributed at school to participating children in plastic shopping bags by their teachers or volunteers as they leave on Thursday afternoons. (Our district does not have school on Fridays.) The contents of the bags can vary depending on the food and donations available. The program strives to provide enough food to replace the meals that children would receive at school (e.g. three breakfast options, three lunch options, two snack options and a fruit option). At the end of the 2020-21 school year, volunteers were filling over 250 backpacks per week at a cost of $5.00 per backpack. The pantry and distribution center is located in the basement of First Presbyterian Church.

The Backpack Program is run by volunteers and has been sponsored by local donations from civic groups, churches, businesses, organizations, individuals, and grants. It is truly a collaborative community effort. We continue to develop and expand appropriate funding programs and partnerships.”

For more information on The Backpack Program log on to https://firstpresbaker.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html?fbclid=IwAR3ZCBQ9TCWSiR7EFgl065buNvutYXqclddMUCalEJbKLwQaG3GoxU0eK18