School district turns unused cafeteria food into take-home meals

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) - There are a lot of children in our country who only get meals at school.  That is why many schools have expanded to provide breakfasts and even dinners.

But when the weekend comes, the meals stop and some children go hungry until Monday.  An estimated 13 million children in the United States live in food-insecure homes.

One school district in Indiana is trying to come up with a solution, right in the cafeteria.  Elkhart Schools is teaming up with the non-profit Cultivate to take left-over food from the cafeteria and repackaging it for students to take home on Fridays.

WSBT reports that the pilot program is providing 20 students with a backpack with eight individual frozen meals every Friday until the end of the school year.

The school system reportedly wants to expand the program in the future.

There are similar programs elsewhere.  On Long Island, in New York, a program called Blessings in a Backpack provides food on the weekends for students who might otherwise go hungry.

FOX 5 NY reports volunteers discretely fill close to 400 backpacks with nutritious, kid-friendly foods to get them to Monday morning.

Blessings in a Backpack says as little as $100 feeds one child on the weekends for the entire school year.