HOUSTON — One in five southeast Texas children is considered food insecure, which means they don’t have consistent access to nutritious food. Many of these children rely on free or reduced-price school meals to provide breakfast and lunch during the school year. During breaks, such as weekends and holidays, many of these children go home to little or no meals. The Houston Food Bank’s Backpack Buddy program* works to fill that gap for chronically hungry children by providing nutritious, child-friendly food for school children to take home over the weekend.
Food insecurity often means having to make difficult decisions between paying for groceries and paying for other necessities. As high inflation increases the cost of foods like meats, fresh produce, and dairy this heightens trade-offs families make between food and other rising costs. That’s why KHOU 11 is teaming up with American Furniture Warehouse, Marco's Pizza, Mrs Baird's, Reliant, and Houston Food Bank to raise $50,000 to provide weekend meals for 15,000+ students across the Greater Houston Area.
This year KHOU 11 is helping your generosity go even further by matching all donations up to $11,000! These funds are made available through the TEGNA Foundation’s community grant program which serves the greater good of our communities by supporting nonprofit activities where TEGNA does business. The Foundation is proud to fund nonprofit organizations and programs that support the communities we serve.
How You Can Donate
Now through August 30, use the field below to make your donation.
How Your Donation Will Be Used
$12 = fills 4 bags with meals for the weekend for 1 child
$36 = helps feed 1 child for 3 months
$108 = provides a school year’s worth of meals over the weekend for a child
$540 = provides 5 children with a school years’ worth of meals over the weekend
Telethon
On Thursday, August 29 from 4 to 7 p.m., we will host a live, in-studio telethon to help us reach our donation goal of $50,000. You can donate by calling 713-654-1111 only on the day of our telethon. The matching donations continue during the telethon thanks to Reliant, a proud sponsor of our food drive campaign for over 30 years. Reliant will be matching donations during the telethon up to $10,000.
*If you are interested in having your child on the Backpack Buddy program:
- Contact the principal or school counselor at your child’s school to find out if the school participates in the program.
- If your school is not a part of the Backpack Buddy program, direct your school principal or counselor to this site for more information.
- Backpack Buddy Permission Slip Form