Wegmans Kicks Off Annual ‘Fill The BackPack’ Food Drive Campaign

A local supermarket is once again doing its part to assist in the effort to ensure that Western New York's school-age children are properly fed and eating healthy.

Wegmans' Jamestown location staff members are assisting the Food Bank of WNY's BackPack program with their own annual "Fill the BackPack" food drive campaign, which helps students who rely on free or reduced lunch at school by providing them with take-home bags of food each Friday throughout the school year.

The annual "Fill the BackPack" campaign at Wegmans kicked off Sunday, and had reportedly already surpassed its daily goal of 500 pounds donated to the cause before noon. Running through Sunday, June 18, the campaign affords customers the opportunity to donate by purchasing pre-packaged bags of Wegmans brand, non-perishable food items near the store's checkouts.

"One of the key reasons behind our involvement with the BackPack program is that all the food raised by our stores stays local, and benefits children in our area," said Danielle Amico, service area manager, adding that there are seven Chautauqua County schools participating in the program. "That reflects a key value that we have at Wegmans, which is making a difference in our community. And the fact that we are able to educate our own employees about programs like this one while raising awareness about this issue facing our area is an important attribute, as well."

The bags themselves are symbolic, but instead represent groupings of canned and boxed food in varying sizes based on price: $3, $5 or $10. At the conclusion of the campaign, the Food Bank of WNY will tally the amount of food donated and draw up orders to ship the food to participating schools throughout Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Erie and Niagara counties for the beginning of the coming school year.

One such participating school is Love Elementary School in Jamestown. Anne Eklund, a Love Elementary employee and coordinator of the school's participation in the BackPack program, said programs such as the BackPack program are crucial to the well-being of children growing up in an economically repressed climate.

"We're the only school in Jamestown that participates in this program, but there are many other schools that have poverty or kids in need," Eklund said. "And it doesn't have to be a big program to help those kids, but it does take somebody who's willing to do the work to make a difference for them."

The Food Bank of WNY's BackPack program is in 41 schools throughout its four-county service area. Each take-home bag afforded to schools via the program is filled with items like cereal, applesauce, fruit juice, shelf-stable milk, canned soups and healthy snacks.

The Food Bank of WNY serves approximately 43,000 children and infants through member agencies, and through programs such as "Fill the Backpack." For more information about the organization and its programs, visit foodbankwny.org.