Weekend Backpacks is a nonprofit that was founded six years ago by Sandie Nagel. Their mission is to eradicate food insecurity in Baltimore City. While all Baltimore City schoolchildren are provided breakfast and lunch at school each day, there are many families who are food insecure and lack access to food when school is not in session.
Weekend Backpacks provides child-friendly, nutritious food to children in Baltimore City over the weekends and during holidays when school is not in session and food is often unavailable.
Some children might go up to 72 hours with little or no access to food and more than 100 hours when there is a three- or four-day weekend. The first week, Sandie packed just 18 bags of food on her dining room table. Today, Weekend Backpacks has over 300 volunteers and delivers over 1,000 bags of food per week to help these children and their families.
Weekend Backpacks is getting creative with their fundraising efforts to combat food insecurity. On May 16, they will hold the second of their four-part virtual food series to help raise money that will go towards getting food and supplies every week for the children they serve. Proceeds from the event will go directly towards purchasing essential food items that are provided to children weekly.
The Cupcake Decorating event took place on Sunday, May 16 from 3-4 p.m. on Zoom. Local pastry chef Jason Hisley, winner of the Food Network’s “Cake Wars” and “Holiday Wars,” acted as expert host and guide. The donation to register was $45 and included six pre-made cupcakes from Jason's bakery, icing and all the supplies needed to decorate.
Weekend Backpacks Board Member Susan Spector stopped by Spotlight On Maryland on the morning of Sunday, May 16th to talk to Liz Drabick about the big cupcake decorating event for later that afternoon. Hear the interview by clicking on the audio.
The second installment is “Barbeque & Brew” with Linwood’s June 27th 3-4PM which is scheduled to visit Spotlight On Maryland hosted by Liz on Sunday, June 20th at 6:30am on Today's 101.9. Learn about all their upcoming events on their website or on facebook.
You can listen to Spotlight On Maryland at 6:30am every Sunday with rotating hosts Liz and Gina Crash on your terrestrial radio, online, via the Audacy app for your iphone, getting the app from Google play or by asking your smart speaker to play Today's 101.9.