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Facts & FAQs

You Have Questions and We Have Answers

Explore our Frequently Asked Questions to learn more about Backpack Buddies and how you can get involved to feed hungry kids across BC.

Facts & Stats

At Backpack Buddies in 2025-26:

  •  6,800 children received food for the weekend (2024-25: 6,000)
  •  6,721 children received food during Spring Break (2024-25: 524)
  • 1,208 children received food during summer holidays (2024-25: 407)
  • 486 schools and community partners in 83 BC communities offered the Backpack Buddies program (2024-25: 380)
  • 222,910 bags of food for the weekend and 2116 holiday hampers were delivered to kids, providing 1,821,712 meals (2024-25: 196,498 bags + 1,052 holiday hampers with 1,588,816 meals)
  • 6,219 Buddies from our donor community generously gave $6,983,145 to fund our programs (2024-25: 5,232 donors giving $5,039,538)
  • 917 volunteers generously donated 3,813 hours to pack bags of food and deliver food to schools

Our goals for 2026-2027:

  • 8,000 children will receive food for the weekend
  •  7,500 children will receive food during Spring Break
  • 2,500 children will receive food during summer holidays
  • 570 schools and community partners in 85 BC communities will offer the Backpack Buddies program

We carefully track every delivery through our logistics management system, so we know how many children receive food each week and how many meals are reaching families across BC.

Backpack Buddies 101

Here’s how we get food into the hands of almost over 6,800 children across BC every week.

Many children who come from food-insecure homes rely heavily on school meal programs. However, over the weekend these children may not eat at all until school starts again on Monday. Or their parents may forgo meals so their kids can eat. This is what we call the “weekend hunger gap.” Backpack Buddies addresses this crisis by providing kids with bags of kid-approved meals and snacks every Friday to last them the weekend and beyond.

One bag of food includes meal items, fresh fruit, veggies and snacks. There is enough food to last the entire weekend and beyond. We work hard to ensure that most items in our bags are ready-to-eat, largely non-perishable in case a child doesn’t have access to a fridge, and familiar to kids. 

It costs $25 to fill a bag. Each bag contains enough meal items plus fresh fruit, veggies and snacks to last a child the entire weekend and beyond.

The majority of the food we provide in our bags is purchased from our food partners Save On Foods and Sysco. We use our strong buying power to purchase the food at cost or less. We supplement this by purchasing through food rescue companies such as FoodMesh. We also have wonderful supplier partnerships with generous companies like FreeYumm, who contribute in-kind donations to our program.

We pack our food in reusable, non-branded, non-woven fiber bags every Friday before they go home. These bags are unlabeled so we can provide support discretely to kids.

During the summer and school holidays, children can lose access to the meal programs they rely on. In 2026, we are launching our Schools’ Out program to help fill this gap — providing weekly hampers for families with the greatest need and weekend bags for children who need extra support. We work with schools and community partners to ensure food reaches children in ways that are practical, flexible, and consistent.

How to Receive Food from Backpack Buddies

Are you an educator, community organization or parent that would like to connect a child you know with Backpack Buddies? We’ll answer your questions below.

We work closely with educators, administrators, and social workers in schools and community organizations across BC who advise us on the needs of their students and help identify those who could benefit most from receiving a bag of food every week.

Our trucks and transportation partners drive through Metro Vancouver, Vancouver Island, the Interior of BC, Northern BC and the Sunshine Coast delivering bags of food to recipient schools. The deliveries are met by a school representative who takes them to a discrete location for distribution to students as they head home on Friday afternoons.

Currently, Backpack Buddies works with school districts across BC to distribute bags. If your child attends school in one of the following districts, please connect with an administrator or teacher at the school to find out if the program is available. Your school administrator will contact Backpack Buddies to facilitate signup and distribution. If your child attends school in a district not listed below, please contact us here.

  • SD 39: Vancouver
  • SD 44: North Vancouver
  • SD 36: Surrey
  • SD 41: Burnaby
  • SD 35: Langley
  • SD 43: Coquitlam
  • SD 38: Richmond
  • SD 61: Greater Victoria
  • SD 62: Sooke
  • SD 63: Saanich
  • SD 68: Nanaimo Ladysmith
  • SD 71: Comox Valley
  • SD 85: Port Hardy
  • SD 46: Sunshine Coast
  • SD 84: Vancouver Island West
  • SD 72: Campbell River
  • SD 82: Coast Mountains
  • SD 8: Kootenay Lake
  • SD 20: Kootenay-Columbia
  • SD 5: Southeast Kootenay
  • SD 6: Rocky Mountain
  • SD 78: Fraser Cascade
  • SD 53: Okanagan Similkameen
  • SD 67: Okanagan Skaha
  • SD 48: Sea to Sky
  • SD 60: Peace River North
  • SD 57: Prince George

If you’re new to Backpack Buddies and want to sign your school up for food deliveries, click the button below and fill out our form to request bags.

Request Bags For Your School

Need more bags? Feel like you’re getting too many? No worries – we are happy to adjust your delivery. Please click the button below to be in touch with Lorraine, our Director of Food Access.

Connect With Us

Get Involved

Curious about volunteering or giving? Want to do a virtual food drive with your company? We’ve got you covered.

You bet we are. Our Canadian charitable number is: 837443233 RR0001. We are officially called Community First Foundation and we do business as Backpack Buddies.

Yes! We would love to have you join us as a donor. You can make a donation online by clicking the button below, or you can mail us a cheque (made out to Backpack Buddies) to our office at 170 Harbour Avenue, North Vancouver, BC V7J 2E6. We will issue you a charitable tax receipt for your donation.

Give Online Now

Absolutely! To make a gift of securities, please visit our Canada Helps page by clicking the button below and select the “Donate Securities” tab.

Give Securities

Our financial statements and annual reports are available for you on our governance page.

View Financials

Our program wouldn’t be possible without our incredible community of volunteers! We offer both individual and corporate volunteer opportunities.

Individual Opportunities

Absolutely! Through our Pack and Give Back program, we offer our corporate donors the opportunity to bring their team to our North Vancouver warehouse to pack our weekly food bags and learn more about childhood hunger across BC.

Learn More

DIG INTO OUR FINANCIALS

Financial FAQs

Want to learn more about our financials? Explore our FAQ below to discover how we approach fiscal responsibility, transparency and sustainability.

  1. We believe it is possible for every child in BC to have enough food to eat.
  2. We believe that when we promise to provide food for a child, they can count on us for as long as they need us.

These two principles guide the use of every dollar we raise. It means that we manage every dollar with great care. We invest in the health of our organization so that good people stay with us for the long term and we have a stable organization that families can count on to be here for years to come. It means that we invest in fundraising and the care of our donors so that we can continually grow to reach more and more children. We make sure to speak for children that cannot speak for themselves, encouraging governments, large companies, and our communities to support the most vulnerable children. It means we must keep reserve funds on hand so that we can keep our promise to children to support them, as long as they need us, no matter what unexpected financial storms arise. We make sure that every dollar provides food security for children in our program today and helps us reach more children across BC every year.

We make sure every dollar helps to get food into the hands of BC’s most vulnerable children. When you make a $25 donation to Backpack Buddies:

  • $13.01 pays for food
  • $7.34 pays for the warehouse, vehicles, and people that get the food into the hands of children
  • $4.16 helps to raise more money so we can help even more children
  • $0.49 makes sure we fulfill our responsibilities like providing tax receipts and managing our finances properly

We make sure that every dollar provides food security for children in our program today and helps us reach more children across BC every year.

* Based on our 2024/25 financial statements

Families, companies, foundations, and government have stepped up to help vulnerable children have enough to eat. We are grateful for all our generous supporters.

  • 67% of our funding comes from individuals and companies
  • 33% of our funding comes from grants

* Based on our 2023/24 financial statements

Children in the Backpack Buddies program live in food-insecure families – they do not have enough food to eat and struggle with the devastating and lifelong impacts of hunger and nutritional deprivation. When Backpack Buddies steps in, we offer our promise that we will be there for them, providing a source of food every weekend that they can count on as long as they need us. Keeping this promise means establishing financial stability in our organization to weather financial fluctuations that could otherwise threaten our ability to support children counting on us.

Our goal is to hold a cash reserve equivalent to 12 months of the cost of food for our program and 6 months of operating expenses, ensuring that children in our program will not be affected by fluctuations in donations from month to month.

Today, there are nearly 288,000 children in BC who are going hungry. One day, we hope to be able help them all.

Make a Difference Today

Feed Hungry Kids

Join us as a donor. Pack bags as a volunteer. Get your company connected. Whatever you do, when you get involved with Backpack Buddies, you will be putting hope back on the table for hungry kids across BC.

Get Involved

There are lots of ways to get involved with Backpack Buddies. Join us and explore how you can make a difference in the lives of hungry kids in your own community and across BC.

Get Started

Donate to Backpack Buddies

Give today and provide hungry kids with meals and snacks for the weekend.

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