Second Harvest has partnered with our member agencies to start several new hunger initiatives.

The BackPack Program

The mission of the BackPack Program is to help alleviate child hunger by addressing the lack of food resources on weekends and holidays for children who are at-risk for hunger through the provision of groceries for them to prepare and consume at home. The BackPack Program is also a national program of Feeding America.

With a grant from The Wal-Mart Foundation,the first BackPack program was started in October 2006 at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Lorain County with a goal to distribute 160 backpacks to children each week. With a grant from Sodexho in January2007, the number was expanded to 220 backpacks each week. Read the article from The Chronicle Telegram.

The program will continue into the 2008/09 school year with generous grants from the Nordson Corporation Foundation of $50,000, from ElyriaCity Schools of $4,000 and Sodexho of $3,000.

The second BackPack Program began in March 2007 at the Boys & Girls Club of Erie County through a generous grant from the Murray & Murray Foundation.

A third BackPack Program will begin in September 2008 with the Plymouth-Shiloh Food Pantry in Huron County funded by CPEF / American Idol Gives Back.

Kids Cafe

In Savannah, GA in 1989, two young brothers were discovered late one night in the kitchen of their housing project's community center after the older brother broke into the kitchen to feed himself and his younger brother. In response to this glaring example of child hunger, the Second Harvest Food Bank of Coastal Georgia started the first Kids Cafe. In 1993, America's Second Harvest launched the national Kids Cafe program.

The first local Kids Cafe program was started in June 2006 at the Boys & Girls Club of Sandusky through a generous grant from ConAgra's Feeding Children Better Foundation. Read the article from the  Sandusky Register .

Kids Cafe programs provide free meals and snacks to low-income children through a variety of existing community locations where children congregate such as Boys and Girls Clubs, churches or public schools. In addition to providing hot meals to hungry kids, some Kids Cafe programs also offer a safe place, where under the supervision of trustworthy staff, a child can get involved in educational, recreational and social activities that draw on existing community programs and often include family members.

The Benefit Bank

Second Harvest is working to implement The Benefit Bank with our network of member agencies to help them link their clients to resources that may be available to them.  The first pilot site was Catholic Charities Family Center on 8th Street in Lorain.

The Benefit Bank® (TBB™) connects communities to resources by providing a practical technological solution to the complex and cumbersome process by which low income households gain access to tax credits and public benefit programs. Developed for use by a wide range of community based, faith-based, governmental, job-training, healthcare or social service agencies, TBB can be part of a community-wide response to poverty. TBB not only provides the opportunity to help neighbors but also provides information for organizations to more effectively advocate for policies that better serve their communities.  For more information visit The Benefit Bank website.

To find out about how to become a trained Benefit Bank counselor contact the Ohio Benefit Bank Community Trainer at 440.960.2265, x-225 or by email.