Many children in Shoreline lack basic food, through no fault of their own.

The mission of the Backpack Kids Ministry is to provide hope and nutrition to vulnerable students in our community and to demonstrate God’s love and care via the hearts and hands of Calvin Church.

We do this by supplying weekend food packs to hungry students identified by school staff. Each pack contains roughly 6 small meals and some snacks for the weekend. A Calvin Church sticker with the words “Sharing God’s Love” is placed in each pack.

We welcome community support to help feed chronically hungry children. 

• There are many hands-on ways you can help–shopping, packing, distributing to schools and more.  LEARN HOW
• Your financial donation increases the number of students served. All donations go directly to provide food. No overhead cost is deducted.
  DONATE HERE to Calvin’s Backpack Kids
  DONATE HERE to Community Partners in Shoreline
• When you link your Fred Meyer Rewards card to Backpack Kids, you benefit hungry kids too.  Use Backpack Kids’ code number, KD514, on the Fred Meyer Community Rewards page.

April 2018 Update:  Backpack Kids Continues Growth, Service

ORIGINS:  Backpack Kids started small, grew, and began replicating its local, effective response to student hunger.

We began in 2009 by providing up to 10 packs of food each Friday to Einstein Middle School. In 2011 we provided an average of 30 foodpacks per week in two local schools.

After several years, aware of needs in other nearby schools, we began praying that God would raise up 4 more churches to address the needs of the 4 Title 1 elementary schools in Shoreline without a foodpack program. We applied for a grant from the Northwest Coast Presbytery for seed money for these churches and to expand our own number of packs.

God answered our prayers!

• We received a partial grant from NWC Presbytery that turned out to be the exact amount needed for the school year.
• So far 3 churches have responded to our invitation. Two have already started their programs.
• Shorewood High School asked if we could start bringing foodpacks to hungry high school students. We had enough for 5 packs per week from the grant. God provided for the other 7 packs through generous gifts made through Calvin’s 2013 Advent Gift Catalog.

In 2013-2014, because many have responded generously to God’s leading, we provided an average of 40 foodpacks per week in 3 schools. The number of packs has grown each year since.

IMPACT:  School personnel say this stable weekend meal support makes a huge difference in the lives of their low-income, food- insecure students.