Each child that comes through the doors of Arcadia Valley Elementary has access to breakfast and lunch during school, though the same cannot be said for the weekends. The goal of Backpack Impact is to help ensure that every child has access to food when school is not in session by sending home food using the child's backpack. Every Arcadia Valley Elementary student will be eligible to participate. Families that opt to participate in the Backpack Impact program will receive two meals for each day school is not in session (weekend) for each participating elementary age child in that home. For a typical two day weekend, the child’s teacher will be given four meals on Friday morning to discreetly place in the backpack of the participating child. The teacher will place the food in the child’s backpack during their plan period (while the students are in special class). Volunteers will package the meals on Thursday afternoon/evening. Storage of the food will be off-site until the day of distribution. Students will be given a backpack if they are in need of one. Food will be packed in a plastic grocery bag and tied. There will be two breakfast items, two lunch items, two dinner items, and two snack items. These are items that are individually packaged, easy to prepare, fairly nutritious, and light in weight (limit on cans).
