School Backpack Food Program

Nearly 50% of students in our local school districts are eligible for reduced school lunch programs!

That’s a staggering statistic and the main driving point to Cortland Loaves & Fishes’ School Backpack program. Loaves & Fishes currently funds and delivers food items for weekend meals to twelve local schools, to address the food insecurity issue in our community. School social workers, teachers, and in one district student volunteers fill backpacks with food each week, and those at-risk students take those backpacks home for meals for themselves and siblings. This program receives NO STATE OR FEDERAL FUNDING and is totally supported by individual, business, and organization donations.

This school backpack program has become our second largest budget item and serves the Cortland, Homer, Dryden, Moravia, McGraw, Marathon, Cincinnatus, and Tully school districts. Approximately 60,000 meals will be distributed this year enriching the lives of over 1900 families.