Group-of-kids-having-lunch-girl-smiling-at-cameraOn most Fridays during the school year, nearly 350 City of Erie School District 2nd and 3rd grade students receive a BackPack of food that contains enough breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack items to help feed them over their weekends when school meals aren’t available. Yet during Thanksgiving and Christmas break, students are away even longer from their school-provided breakfasts and lunches. Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest Pennsylvania is addressing the concern of students being hungry over holiday break by distributing Holiday Backpacks filled with extra food for children.

During Erie BackPackular, more than 120 volunteers will donate their time to fill 5,184 Holiday BackPacks.  These Holiday BackPacks will serve qualifying City of Erie kindergarten through 5th grade students over their Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. The Holiday BackPacks will contain extra food for the seven days of Thanksgiving break and eleven days of Christmas break. Holiday BackPacks will be distributed to students on November 21st and December 23rd.

A $10,000 grant from the PNC Foundation helped to fund the distribution of Holiday BackPacks for children from the City of Erie School District“PNC is committed to supporting Second Harvest’s mission to feed those that are hungry.  Through charitable grants and employee volunteerism, we hope to improve the quality of life for children and their families so they can grow up and achieve success in school and life,” said Vickie Lampe, director of client and community relations for PNC Bank.

“We are humbled that so many have stepped up to help with the Holiday BackPacks,” said Karen Seggi, executive director of Second Harvest. “It takes a community effort to alleviate hunger. This event is a great example of many individuals working together to help feed those in need.”

BackPackular Event Details
Date:  Friday, October 28, 2016
Time: 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Location:  Second Harvest Food Bank of NW PA |1507 Grimm Drive| Erie, PA