Food bank expands ‘Weekend Backpack Program’ to fight childhood hunger in Imperial County
IMPERIAL COUNTY, Calif. (KYMA) – As school doors swing open for the 2026–2027 academic year, thousands of local students are returning to class facing a severe, hidden crisis outside the classroom: childhood hunger.
New data reveals a dismal reality for families across the region. Imperial County now leads the state of California in food insecurity, with one in five residents lacking reliable access to affordable, nutritious food.
Tragically, the numbers are even higher for local youth, where more than one in three children experience hunger.
At a staggering 34%, Imperial County’s childhood hunger rate is nearly triple the California state average of 13%.
To fight this, the Imperial Valley Food Bank (IVFB) is rapidly scaling up its response, expanding its weekly Weekend Backpack Program to reach more than 1,600 students across 58 schools.
The program, which is marking its 23rd year of operation, has evolved from a small initiative at a single school in 2004 to a massive countywide pipeline serving youth from kindergarten through high school.
Sara Griffen, Executive Director of the Imperial Valley Food Bank, noted that the demand has skyrocketed recently.
“We’ve seen a rapid uptake since the end of COVID, to the point that we used to be around 700 or 800 and now we’re at 1,600 students,” Griffen said.
Every single week for 35 weeks of the academic year, the program delivers eight to ten pounds of fresh and shelf-stable food directly to children. A dedicated team of 10 to 20 volunteers, mostly retired local teachers, gather at the food bank to pack the items, keeping operating costs as low as possible.
The food menu is strategically selected to include roughly 12 tailored items that kids can easily manage on their own, especially in households with limited cooking facilities.
“Easy-open meals, like spaghetti, mac and cheese, that the kids can microwave themselves and prepare,” explained Cari Augusta, IVFB Distributions Manager and Weekend Backpack Coordinator. “We want them to enjoy their food for the weekend.”
For educators and food bank organizers, protecting the dignity of the participating children is just as vital as providing the nutrition. The program relies heavily on a network of on-campus school counselors, nurses, and teachers to discreetly identify students who show signs of food insecurity.
To prevent peer stigma or bullying, the food is distributed in completely nondescript bags.
“The first week that we give out food, we do give an actual backpack. It’s very generic-looking and it has a bag inside that has food for the weekend. And then every Friday, we have a bag refill,” Griffen said. “It’s one of those problems that nobody wants to talk about, and especially kids…You just don’t want to be called out for that.”
The educational benefits are backed by science. Academic data consistently proves that proper calorie intake directly correlates to cognitive development and classroom success.
“There are lots of studies about the amount of calories a child needs for cognitive processing,” Griffen emphasized. “When a child is undernourished, they cannot learn the same as someone who is fully nourished. [The backpacks] help those children come back to school on Monday being nourished and ready to learn.”
Augusta added that the difference can be seen clearly on report cards saying, “I’ve heard from educators that test scores go up when kids are fed three meals a day…If they don’t have those meals on the weekends, the backpack program is even more important now.”
Sustaining the expansive program has become an uphill battle. Organizers say a combination of severe post-pandemic inflation and recent federal and state cuts to SNAP benefits (known as CalFresh in California) have driven an unprecedented wave of families to the food bank’s doors.
“Plus the inflation with everything costing more, some of the SNAP benefits being reduced in some families, so there’s definitely more [need] than ever for this program,” Augusta said.
She noted that while the food bank has secured food orders through December, they must raise enough money to place a second major bulk purchase to sustain the program through the spring semester.
Compounding the financial pressure is the fact that the Weekend Backpack Program operates entirely on local empathy.
“Mainly in the funding because it is privately financed. There’s no government subsidy for the Weekend Backpack Program…it’s local people who care and contribute,” Griffen explained.
Griffen remains candid about the limitations of a nonprofit acting as a temporary safety net, noting that childhood hunger cannot be wiped out permanently without solving the economic root causes affecting the region.
“Hunger, it’s not an easy fix. It’s a symptom of poverty, so it isn’t something that a rural nonprofit like us can fix,” Griffen said. “We need more jobs and more diversification of jobs in the Imperial Valley in order for more families to have higher incomes. We have a lot of low-income jobs and very high [income jobs] and not a lot in the middle, and so that kind of describes our society.”
Until those systemic economic shifts occur, the food bank is turning to local residents to ensure no child spends their weekend hungry.
It costs exactly $250 to fully sponsor and sustain one student’s backpack for the entire 35-week academic year. To help meet the rising demand, a prominent local philanthropist has stepped up to challenge the community.
Jack Tyler, a 91-year-old native Imperial Valley volunteer has established a formal matching grant.
Through January 2027, Jack Tyler will double the impact of all first-time contributions made to the program.
Under the match, a single $250 donation is instantly amplified to $500, meaning one donor can effectively protect two local children from hunger for the entire school year.
The food bank is currently distributing adoption and donation cards throughout the community to encourage residents to take part.
To sponsor a student, volunteer to pack bags, or learn more about having your contribution doubled by Jack Tyler, visit the Imperial Valley Food Bank Page.
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