We are always looking for feedback on our bags, if you have received them and would like to share your thoughts please go to our Family Forum and take our survey!
Sample Bags
Our bags are designed to provide the meals that students would receive at school during the week for a family of three or four.
To make sure that our bags are as ready and easy to use as possible, they’re planned around four different main meals: pasta, peanut butter and jelly, rice and beans, and chili mac and cheese. Along with these entrees, they each have at least a vegetable, fruit, protein, and breakfast. Here are some sample menus, showing what a bag might look like.
Rice and Beans
- Brown Rice
- Black Beans
- Corn
- Vienna Sausage
- Beef Ravioli Can
- Garden Vegetable Pasta Pouch
- Fruit Cocktail
- Applesauce Cups
- Milk
- Cereal
PB&J
- Bread
- Peanut Butter
- Grape Jelly
- Green Beans
- Chicken
- Vegetable Soup
- Pork & Beans Can
- Mac and Cheese
- Peaches
- Pears Cups
- Grits
Pasta
- Elbow Macaroni
- Spaghetti Sauce
- Peas
- Tuna
- Rice & Beans Can
- White Chicken Chili Pouch
- Applesauce
- Mandarin Cups
- Oatmeal Packs
Chili Mac
- Mac and Cheese
- Chili with Beans
- Mixed Vegetable
- Chicken
- Sketti O’s Can
- Southwest Chicken and Rice Pouch
- Pineapple
- Fruit Cocktail Cups
- Yogurt
- Oatmeal
We do our best to balance a few different priorities in each bag:
Nutrition
We believe in the importance of providing nutritious food to support healthy lifestyles.
We use the same system to think about our items as the Maryland Food Bank does in their SWAP (Supporting Wellness at Pantries) initiative. This takes into account the sodium, sugar, and saturated fat content of foods. They’re then categorized as green for “choose often,” yellow for “choose sometimes,” and red for “choose rarely.”
Our goal is to make sure that at least 50% of the food in each of our bags is green and never more than 30% red.
Variety
We want our bags to be something students look forward to receiving. Along with trying to create functional and thoughtful menus, we put in as much variety as possible. In addition to rotating through our four menus, we make sure to rotate individual items as well. For example, we alternate different types of beans, rice, vegetables, and cereals. We hope that this variety keeps things interesting and appetizing for everyone.
Kid-Friendliness
Our bags are designed to appeal to kids. We pack foods that are familiar and appealing to them and include favorites like fruit cups in all our bags and snacks whenever we can.
We also want to ensure that there are foods that children can prepare for themselves. We alternate between our more cooking-oriented menus and more ready to eat ones. And we include prepared entrees, like a Chef Boyardee or a can of soup, that can just be heated up and eaten. We want the students that we support to always have food readily accessible to them.
Practicality
We want to provide as much food as possible in each of our bags. But it’s important to consider that they’re brought home primarily by elementary and middle school children. We aim for our bags to weigh about ten pounds and fit inside the backpack we provide at the beginning of the school year.
Additional Materials
In addition to food, Weekend Backpacks aims to provide families with additional information and resources to eat and live healthier. Once a month, our bags will include supplemental materials from either Tastewise Kids or University of Maryland SNAP Educators with recipes and ideas for healthy eating, like these Cooking 5 Ways ideas. Learn more about each and explore the resources that they offer by clicking below.
Can you find the heart in this picture? One creative student took their puzzle from the TasteWise Kids packet on heart healthy foods and created a portrait of their Community School Coordinator!