The BackPack Program is designed to meet the nutritional needs of food insecure, elementary-age students on weekends when free school meals aren’t available. The program currently delivers 60 backpacks filled with child-friendly, convenient, nutritious foods to participating schools every Friday for the duration of the school year. 

At the beginning of each school year, we contact the elementary school social workers at participating schools and ask them to identify students who may be food insecure. Letters are sent home to the parents asking if they would like to participate in the program. This year, demand is at an all-time high and we are currently providing an unprecedented 60 backpacks over 35 weeks with the makings of 6 meals each (12,600 meals).

In addition to shelf-stable food purchased through the Food Bank, Common Ground Farm contributes roughly $3,000 worth of fresh produce to the backpacks. Over the course of the year, we include 20 recipes so that families have options for how to prepare less familiar vegetables, and 1,000 milk and egg vouchers so that families can obtain these perishable items directly from the store for free. Finally, we issue Greens4Greens coupons, which allow families already using SNAP/EBT to stretch their benefits and access fresh produce from the Beacon Farmers' Market (held every Sunday). Through generous donations from individuals and organizations such as The United Way and school PTOs, we provide a full Harvest Share of vegetables to each participating student at Thanksgiving. 

In the 2023-2024 school year, we are responding dynamically to the needs of BackPack Program participants. Our BackPack coordinator often has to guess at whether an item or piece of fresh produce will truly meet the goals of being child-friendly and convenient. To that end, we continuously promote online and paper surveys. We measure the program's success both through survey responses as well as direct feedback given to the school social workers from participating students and parents.

The Common Ground School BackPack Program is supported by Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union, the Redl Foundation, United Way of the Dutchess Orange Region, and the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley.