Food bank backpacks provide meals for kids

After lining up with her Normandie Avenue Elementary class to pick up backpacks full of crackers, apple juice, cereal and other healthful food, second-grader Daisy Rodriguez, 6, sat down to explain what she had learned from the weekly food giveaway.

“First, let me tell you about junk food,” she said, licking her lips.

That includes chips, cheese puffs and candy -- Daisy really likes candy. But the backpacks delivered each Friday by the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank don’t come with any of that, because junk food, she says, makes you fat and hurts your teeth. Instead, they’re packed with six nutritious meals and snacks, enough to last a weekend, and include coupons for the kinds of fruit Daisy likes -- strawberries and oranges.

“They give us healthy stuff so we can be strong and brave,” she said, flexing a bicep.

Daisy and her classmates are part of the growing legion of hungry Los Angeles residents who rely on the food bank. The number of households without a regular supply of food grew from 402,000 to 474,000 between 2003 and 2005, according to a recent study by the county Department of Public Health.

The need is particularly great in Daisy’s neighborhood of South Los Angeles, a food bank spokesman said.

“If we get them a nutritious diet early, we get them used to that, and we’ll see the payoff down the road. Healthier kids turn into healthier adults,” Darren Hoffman said. “It’s not just food in, food out anymore. It’s getting to the root of the problem to stop hunger before it starts.”

The food bank, founded in 1973, currently serves more than 670,000 people a year across L.A. County, including seniors living on fixed incomes and workers living paycheck to paycheck. Food bank officials say private donations, both from individuals and the business community, and grants make up most of the nonprofit’s $7 million annual operating budget.

The Times Holiday Fund awarded $25,000 to the food bank this year.

About 60% of what the food bank distributes goes to pantries and soup kitchens.

The backpack program is one of the organization’s newest efforts to help families, reaching 450 children at four schools where the majority of students receive free lunches and might otherwise go hungry on weekends.

In addition to Normandie, the other elementary schools involved are Main Street, Ninth Street and Eastman.

“A lot of students don’t bring snacks; they don’t eat breakfast, so when it gets to 12 o’clock, they’re starving,” said Daisy’s teacher, Lorraine Owens.

Some of the parents who came to pick up their children and help carry the backpacks home said they have large families, with lots of mouths to feed. They said they have little time to cook nutritious meals or prepare snacks, even during the weekend, and can’t always afford groceries. Food bank backpacks fill at least part of the gap.

Daisy’s mother, Lidia Rodriguez, 33, works in the school’s office. She said a mother came in last month to thank her for the backpacks, because without them, she couldn’t afford to feed her family.

Other students are homeless, living in shelters, and the backpacks are their only food for the weekend.

The sacks also help working parents such as Rodriguez, who want to feed their children healthful food but don’t have time to shop and cook.

“As a working parent, I come home and I can’t cook a big meal,” she said. “It’s convenient.”

The annual Holiday Campaign is part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund, a fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, which this year will match donations at 50 cents on the dollar.

Donations are tax-deductible. For more information, call (213) 237-5771. To make credit card donations, visit www.latimes.com/holidaycampaign. To send checks, use the attached coupon. Please do not send cash. Unless requested otherwise, gifts of $50 or more will be acknowledged in The Times.

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molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com