Vineyard Family Services, JLB partner on BackPack Buddies program

Hunger does not take a break on the weekends.

That is the motto of Vineyard Family Services’ BackPack Buddies program, which provides bags of food for children on the weekends and during school breaks. The program provides these bags to children from 28 schools in the Shelby County Schools, Alabaster City Schools and Pelham City Schools systems.

Of those schools, 14 are fully sponsored — meaning the food is purchased, the bags are packed and the bags are distributed — by local churches. The other 14 are funded through grants and by local organizations.

The Junior League of Birmingham is one of those organizations, and helps provide bags to three elementary schools. JLB has sponsored the program for seven years, VFS program coordinator Stephanie Grissom said during a March 20 packing event at the Junior League of Birmingham.

“They are a key reason our program has been able to expand,” Grissom said. Since the program started in 2009, it has grown from two to 28 schools.

Members of JLB sign up for placements with volunteer activities at the start of the year, said member Kasey Colvin, and between 10 and 12 members work with VFS’s BackPack Buddies. Colvin had not heard about the program before volunteering with it, but said the exposure to different non-profits is a benefit of JLB. They also work to spread the word about different charities, and encourage others to give back. Colvin’s daughter, 11-year-old Mary Mack Colvin, asked for Capri Suns rather than presents at her last birthday party. Those juice pouches were used to pack the backpacks on March 20.

The “buddies” selected for the program are picked based on need and the recommendation of a school professional. BackPack Buddies lists several “food insecurity indicators,” such as extreme thinness, a child who frequently makes their own meals, transition housing or homelessnesss and other indicators, on its website. Children will receive a bag every week, to take the place of the meals they receive through free lunches at school, in addition to before holiday breaks. Buddies will also receive special holiday bags for Christmas and Easter as well as hygiene bags.

Food bags include shelf stable and easy to open and prepare foods, Grissom said, which allow kids to take them from residence to residence if needed, and allow the children to open and prepare their own food if a parent is not at home.

“We’re definitely trying to make it as healthy as we can, and shelf stable,” Grissom said.

In addition to packing events with individual organizations, VFS hosts community packing days. The next event, which will also be the last packing day of the school year, is on April 1 at VFS’s office at 2834-H Pelham Parkway.

For more information about BackPack Buddies, or to find a way to give back, go to vfsdads.com.