It all began with 10 hungry students at Will Rogers Elementary School in Amarillo. Dyron and Kelly Howell discovered Amarillo was the largest city west of Dallas without a weekend backpack program. And yet, more than 3,200 children in the Amarillo Independent School District relied only on the meals served to them at school for their weekly food. That meant hundreds of children spent their nights and weekends hungry. Determined to find a way to address this need, the Howells assembled 10 bags of food that could be prepared without adult supervision. On Friday, September 3, 2010, the first 10 SP4K recipients received a bag containing enough food to get them through the weekend. Today, the program has grown to serve more than 10,000 kids in 51 school districts. Our Snack Paks always contain brand new, brand-name food. And, thanks to our generous partnerships and a steady stream of volunteers, 100% of all donations given to SP4K are used to purchase food for hungry children. At SP4K, we understand how overwhelming and scary creating a program to end weekend hunger for kids can be. That’s why we share our failures and our successes to help people like you make an impact in your community. We have had our shares of ups and downs, but we never strayed from our mission: “To end weekend hunger for children by providing a backpack filled with kid-friendly snacks each Friday of the year.” Our focus is always on the kids, and we believe that is a major part of our success.
