Sahuarita allocates $5,000 to food bank's weekend food program for youths

The town of Sahuarita has allocated $5,000 to assist the Sahuarita Food Bank and Community Resource Center’s weekend backpack program.

The program serves nearly 350 students by providing weekend food so they don’t go hungry. This ensures these children have meals to carry them through the weekend until returning to school and a daily meal program.

Each backpack contains a variety of items, such as shelf-stable milk; canned meats; applesauce or canned fruit; cereal; fresh fruit and vegetables; and a nutritional bar.

At an overall cost of $66,000, the backpack program is the food bank’s mostly costly project.

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Penelope Pestle, board president of the food bank, said some children in the program report the backpack food items as the only food they eat from Friday evening through Monday morning.

She says there has been a growing need for assistance from the food bank, with a 57% increase in the number of students receiving backpacks of food over the past five years.

In addition to the $5,000 the town provides the food bank for the backpack program, $42,000 is also provided annually for general emergency food and shelter purposed to the Community Food Bank of Green Valley, which is split by the Sahuarita Food Bank and Community Resource Center.

For more information about the program, go to sahuaritafoodbank.org/backpack-program