Second Harvest Celebrates 10th Anniversary of BackPack Program

The Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank has another piece of news to celebrate. This month marks the 10th year of their backpack program. The program was created to ensure students were getting quality nutrition at home on the weekends.

There was a need for extending food services to some students over the weekend. In some cases those students who relied on federally subsidized breakfast and lunch during the school week wouldn't have food at home on the weekend.

It all started as a Christmas Idea of giving with donation boxes set up at locations, and it has expanded from that. Second Harvest teamed up with The National Bank of Commerce and the United Way of Superior/Douglas County to create the Nutrition on Weekends Backpack program.

At the start of the program it benefited approximately 100 students. Now, 10 years later that number has grown to over 1,000 students across 44 Northland schools. Nationwide, the backpack program feeds a half a million kids each year.