What Impact do the Sioux Falls Food Pantry and the Community Food Banks of South Dakota have?
Through it’s area programs (The Sioux Falls Food Pantry, The BackPack Program for at-risk school age children, the Commodity Supplemental Food Program for low income seniors, and the state-wide Food Bank Network), the network distributed 9.3 million pounds of food in South Dakota in 2007. What is the BackPack Program? In Sioux Falls over 3,700 (40%) of the elementary school students and 1,530 (35%) of the middle school students rely on free or reduced cost meals provided through the National School Lunch Program. If not for these meals far too many school children would be trying to learn on an empty stomach, a situation in which very few can be successful. What happens to these childrens on the weekends though, when there is no school? That is where the BackPack Program comes in. This program provides at-risk children with nutritious, easy-to-prepare foods for the weekends until school (and access to the programs) resumes. The food is packaged and distributed in non-descript backpacks
