Creating a community where nutritional needs of Tahoma students are met, enabling them to thrive at home, school, and in extracurricular activities.
Get involved!Backpack Buddies of Maple Valley, WA, is a non-profit organization that provides nutritional security to students K–12, who lack sufficient nutrition at home or are unsure where their next meal will come from.
Get Involved
We operate solely on a dedicated group of sponsors and volunteers and we’d love to have you join us!
Get Support
If your child is in need of the support Backpack Buddies provides, short term or long term, please click here to learn more.
Donate
Interested in making a financial contribution to Backpack Buddies? Please click here.
Children who face hunger are more likely to struggle in school and experience developmental setbacks
in the US face hunger
>12 million
children in the US live in “food insecure” homes
relying on school lunches aren’t getting support in the summer
“Backpack Buddies has blessed families for years. Students rely on—and look forward to—receiving their food for the weekends. Often students open the bag for a healthy snack before they leave school. A bonus this year was the partnership from Jersey Mike’s. Kids are thrilled to get the coupon. Their excitement is something we wish everyone had the opportunity to witness. One student reported their bag was the only food they had for the weekend. We have students and families in need of support in our community and Backpack Buddies is meeting a growing need! We are grateful for this program”
-TSD School Counselor
Our Story
In 2015 a couple of our girls who are in Girl Scouts began participating in a service project with the Covington Backpack Buddies. Knowing there would be a need in Maple Valley we immediately began asking for approval and financial support to bring it to our own community.
In the Fall of 2016 Rock Creek Elementary piloted our program for us. After a few months we had all elementary schools participating and shortly after that the middle schools were added. In 2018 we met one of our initial goals to serve all schools in Tahoma School District. We went from 6 bags that very first week to 160 in the fall of 2018.
Join our subscribers who get our monthly emails and learn about opportunities to help children in Maple Valley. We’ll keep you in the loop on upcoming events and special needs.
You can expect to receive an email 1–2 times per month. You can unsubscribe at any time.
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Special thanks to our current sponsors!
