Help Us Pack the Bag for Second Harvest!
Benefitting the Second Harvest of East Tennessee Food For Kids Program
Donate today and help keep children in our community from going hungry.
• What it is
Food for Kids is our weekend backpack program. We partner with 300 schools across 18
counties to send food home with children who are likely to miss meals when school is
out.
• Who it serves
Right now, about 15,458 students are receiving a Food for Kids bag every week. That’s
kids in urban, rural, and Appalachian communities all across our service area.
• How kids are identified
Teachers and school staff quietly identify students who may be at risk of hunger. Those
names stay confidential, and those are the kids who receive the bags.
• How it’s distributed
Bags are slipped into backpacks every Friday, discreetly, so kids can go into the
weekend with food for themselves and often for younger siblings at home.
• Impact we hear from schools
We regularly hear about better focus, behavior, and self-esteem from students in the
program. Teachers will tell us, “You can tell which kids got their bags.”
• New model (started summer 2025):
o Each child receives 4 complete meals + 4 snacks + 1 milk every week.
o That’s 9 total items designed to build actual breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, plus
snacks.
• Well-rounded & kid-friendly
o Every bag includes fruit, veggies, grains, protein, and dairy.
o Everything is easy to open and prepare with no special tools, so kids can access
it no matter what their home situation looks like.
• $15 sponsors 1 student for 1 month
• $45 sponsors 1 student for 3 months
• $140 sponsors 1 student for the entire school year
• $840 sponsors 6 students for the entire school year
So whether someone can give once, give monthly, or rally a group, they can clearly see the
number of students they’re feeding.
Year-Round Support
• During the summer, Summer Food for Kids keeps the same backpack model going
through partners like housing authorities, church programs, Boys & Girls Clubs, and
summer schools.
• Those sites help us cover the “weekend gap” when school meals and other programs
only serve kids while they’re physically on-site.
Help Second Harvest Food Bank feed the 13,571 children participating in the Food for Kids Program. For just $100, you can sponsor a child for the ENTIRE YEAR! The Food for Kids Program provides a bag full of nutritious & kid-friendly foods each Friday to make sure these children are fed over the weekends. Your gift TODAY helps our children have a better TOMORROW.
To donate by mail, please send to:
Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee
136 Harvest Lane
Maryville, TN 37801
Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee is registered as a 501©3 nonprofit organization. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law, tax identification number 58-1450139.
