By Jon Bodell - May 9, 2017 | 3 comments

Fran Philippe, an RSVP volunteer with the Friends Program, grabs food items off the shelf at Friends of Forgotten Children to make up some food bags to send elementary school kids home with. Every week, Philippe and a handful of other volunteers work to fill 28 bags of food to be distributed to Merrimack Valley School District elementary students in need.(JON BODELL / Insider staff)

Fran Philippe (left) and Kathy Bush, RSVP volunteers with The Friends Program, fill bags of food at Friends of Forgotten Children last week. Every week, volunteers work to fill 28 bags of food to be distributed to Penacook Elementary School students in need.

Here are the first two bags that were filled last week, containing things like soup, vegetables, cereal and a snack or two.(JON BODELL / Insider staff)

From left: RSVP volunteers Marge Pratt, Mickey Russo, Kathy Bush and Fran Philippe stand next to a shopping cart full of filled backpacks -- the first load of the Merrimack Valley School District Backpack Program at the end of February vacation earlier this year. (Courtesy of Jennifer Army, The Friends Program)

There are plenty of important things in life many of us take for granted every day. One of the biggest ones is food.

Although many of us have the luxury of choosing where we want to grab a bite whenever we want, there are a lot of families out there who don’t know when or where their next meal is coming from.

That’s why volunteers with the Friends Program and Friends of Forgotten Children have teamed up with the Merrimack Valley School District to bring the MVSD Backpack Program to life.

The program, which started just after the most recent February school vacation, aims to send Penacook Elementary School students in need home with a backpack full of food that will last the weekend.

There are more than 100 students at the Penacook school who have been identified as at risk for food insecurity, said Jennifer Army, program coordinator at the Friends Program. Of those 100 or so students, the school’s social worker has identified those most at risk, and the backpack program benefits those students.

“We let the social worker at the school and the lunch manager decide who is most in need,” Army said. “The volunteers have no contact with the students.”

Here’s how it works:

Every Wednesday, a handful of volunteers – including Fran Philippe and Kathy Bush, who we met last week – meet at Friends of Forgotten Children, which has a food pantry. They pull all the food that’s set to go into the students’ bags, arrange them by weight (the bags can’t be much heavier than 6 pounds, due to the fact that young kids have to lug these things around on their backs) and start packing. Once all 28 bags are filled, the volunteers drive them to the school, where school officials then distribute the packages to the students who take them home on Fridays.

There’s a ton of volunteer work that goes into this – Philippe spends a lot of time looking for deals at places like Market Basket, Sam’s Club and BJ’s, then she plans out all the meals for the remainder of the school year, making sure to include some variety as well all the vital nutrients.

The problem is that when the school year ends, so does the backpack program – at least for now. One of the major issues facing this project is funding. Like most nonprofits, this collaboration is always on the hunt for more donations, and this is where you can help make sure even more hungry kids get what they need.

There are a few ways to get involved. Go to fofc-nh.org/backpack-program and click the “Donate” button near the bottom right – “In three clicks they can be part of the program,” Philippe said. You can also write a check to Friends of Forgotten Children with “Backpack Program” in the memo line and send it to 224 Bog Road, Concord, NH 03303. Every little bit helps!