FAYETTEVILLE, NC—One group of local middle school kids will be lending a hand to help their fellow students at risk of hunger. The Gray’s Creek Middle School Pep Band will be at the Second Harvest Food Bank of Southeast North Carolina (SHFB) on Thursday, February 2 to volunteer.

“I thought this would be a neat way to instill in these young students the importance of community involvement and volunteerism,” comments Brandi Bullock, Director of Bands for Gray’s Creek Middle School. “Volunteering for this program helps a deserving non-profit, and provides a needed service to children in our school system.”

Band students plan to arrive at SHFB at 3 pm to begin the volunteer shift. The student volunteers will be assembling food packages that are used for the SHFB BackPack Program.

WHAT: Middle school volunteers to help SHFB feed elementary students
WHEN: Thursday, February 2, 2012 3:00pm
WHERE: SHFB Distribution Center, 406 Deep Creek Road, Fayetteville, NC 28312

The SHFB BackPack Program provides wholesome and nutritious food to more than 500 elementary school students each week. With the help of volunteers, the food bank provides food for backpacks each Thursday for distribution at schools on Friday. Each student receives enough food for the weekend to supplement meals otherwise not available.

“My family has enough to eat every day, but I know that some children may not be so lucky,” adds Olivia Stafford, student at Gray’s Creek Middle School. “I’m very excited and proud to help other kids my age. I think what the Food Bank is doing to help kids is awesome and I wish everyone that could help would.”

BackPack packages typically include enough non-perishable, individual serving items for 4 meals over the 2 day weekend. Such items could be macaroni and cheese, canned sausages, cereal, dry milk, fruit cups, and canned vegetables. SHFB makes every effort to include items that require little or no preparation that a child could essential ‘pop the top and eat.’ SHFB also includes information sheets about nutrition and health geared towards school-aged children.

The Backpack Program, launched during 2009, was developed to help fight child hunger—a group particularly vulnerable to hunger. Since 2009, the BackPack Program has expanded to serve some 2,100 children in local school systems each month.

The BackPack program is funded through community support, state and Federal funding, and private donations. Assembly of the BackPacks is done almost completely by volunteers of SHFB. To learn more about volunteering and SHFB operations, please visit www.ccap-inc.org/foodbank.