backpack club: to do list

More about Backpack Club: Newspaper Feature about College Park | Wall St Journal Feature | Overview | Backpack Club Brochure | Sample Menu

Determine food items that will go in backpacks: ~ selection ~ cost ~ size ~ number of items for each weekend per backpack Based on our cost estimates, determine the number of students we can support and how many weeks we will support them. (How will we handle school holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and spring breaks?) Determine a start date and end date (based on the school calendar). Get the word out to church members (food, money, and labor needed). Purchase backpacks (or seek donated ones). Select the elementary school we want to work with. Have someone contact the school principal or social worker to see if the school is interested in working with us. Be prepared to provide our plan in writing to the principal, how many students we can support, and start/end dates. If the school is willing to participate, ask principal/social worker to provide us with the grade level and gender of students selected (by principal or social worker) to participate in the program. Student name is optional. Create a schedule of people loading backpacks and distribute to volunteers. Create a schedule for delivering filled backpacks to school and people to provide transportation. Distribute to volunteers. Create a schedule for retrieving empty backpacks from school and people to provide transportation. Distribute to volunteers. Locate places in the church building for storing food, holding the empty backpacks, holding the filled backpacks, and packing the backpacks. See our Backpack Club Brochure.