Blessings in a Backpack - Lake Orion. Reaching out to the Community to Help Feed Children Over the Weekend.

There are currently 1,500 school-age children in Lake Orion Community Schools on the free / reduced lunch program and therefore at risk of food insecurity. This is a real issue, right here, right now in our community. Teachers are noticing children coming to school on Monday mornings hungry, lethargic and definitely not ready to learn due to not having their nutritional needs met when they did not have access to meals they receive at school.

Blessings in a Backpack is a national organization that is currently in 42 states including Michigan.  Blessings in a Backpack-Lake Orion is a committee of parents, local business owners, community members and educators that have formed a partnership with Blessings in a Backpack-Michigan, the North Woodward Community Foundation (fiscal sponsor)  and Meijer to provide at risk students with a backpack containing six nutritious meals to feed them over the weekend. 

The first two schools to benefit from this program will be Blanche Sims Elementary and Pine Tree Elementary. Once these two schools are up and running, the program will be rolled out to the other elementary schools in the district followed by the middle schools and then the high school.  School-age children in the neighboring communities  of  Auburn Hills, Clarkston, Rochester/Rochester Hills and Waterford are already benefitting from the Blessings in a Backpack program!

However, before we can start to fill any backpacks and send children home with food for the weekend we, as a Community, need to raise $24,000. This is the cost to get the program up and running for our initial two schools.

We are reaching out to all members of the Orion Community - parents, local businesses, community members. You can help in so many ways - volunteering your time (a lot of backpacks will need to be packed!), fundraising, donating resources, monetary donations to name but a few.

$100 will provide a backpack and food to one child each weekend for an entire school year

For more information or to volunteer, please contact

Kim Haynes at khaynes@lakeorion.k12.mi.us or Kellie McDonald at LakeOrionMI@goddardschools.com
Information and data can also be obtained from Blessings in a Backpack-Michigan at www.blessingsinabackpackmi.org

Also, check out our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BlessingsInABackpackLakeOrionMichigan for information and current events!