Some Canton ISD staff and students have recently been going the extra mile to ensure no student will be going home hungry for their regularly scheduled winter break this month.

Canton ISD Administration, with help from students in the high school’s Interact Club, have been working all semester in hopes to spread the word about their program, Backpack Buddies.

The Backpack Buddies goal is to bring food to kids who do not get enough at home, in hopes to make sure they are getting enough to eat every day. The program runs off donations, either being non-perishable food items or money.

“We get donations over at the administration office that come from a variety of people, and we are able to purchase the food from there,” said Theresa Oliver, who is the teacher in charge of the Interact Club. “Every Friday afternoon, they get their package to take home and they have a ‘snack-pack’ for the weekend. On the longer holidays, they try to do a little bit bigger package for them. It’s mainly non-perishable food, and things that are easy for the students to prepare themselves.”

The program is specifically gearing up for the Christmas season, as students will be away from the school for over three weeks between mid-December and the beginning of the new year.

“Our goal is to have bags themed to the holiday during our break. These bags will contain a lot more food than usual and we believe it would be nice for the kids to get an experience similar to normal situations. For example, we could give them some sort of meat with a single serving mashed potato mix, canned yams and/or corn, and maybe even Hawaiian rolls if bought close enough to the break,” Canton ISD Administration released in a statement.

Oliver mentioned plans for the program, including their hopes to have the entire Interact Club involved after the first of the year.

“One of our kids, who is a member of the Interact Club, also works in the Administration office, so he is kind of heading it up this year. Soon we are going to start taking over the Interact students about once a week to help over there, to try to get our kids more involved in it and to try to get a little bit more publicity for the [program],” Oliver said.

If you would like to help with this program during or after the holiday season, there will be a donation box set up inside the

Canton Herald office, as well as donation spots available at the Canton ISD Administration office.

If you are wanting to donate food items, the organization requests items such as ramen, canned soup, macaroni cups, fruit cups, gummies, oatmeal, and cereal. Single-serving items such as small chip bags, cheese crackers, raisins, and cereal bars are also encouraged. The program requests all items brought be completely nut-free in order not to risk complications with allergies.