Education
Education

Partnership offers take-home food for some DeKalb Schools students

Some schools have taken to nontraditional routes to ensure students are fed, including offering dinner before students leave for the day. EMILY HANEY / emily.haney@ajc.com
Some schools have taken to nontraditional routes to ensure students are fed, including offering dinner before students leave for the day. EMILY HANEY / emily.haney@ajc.com
By Marlon A. Walker
Jan 22, 2020

Kingsley Elementary School is working, through a partnership with Congregation Beth Shalom, to ensure students have food to last through the weekend.

The Backpack Buddies program, started by the synagogue, sends 65 students home each Friday with healthy snacks and nonperishable foods for students and their families to eat over the weekend.

Volunteers pick up food from the Atlanta Community Food Bank and other outlets, district officials said. Enrolled students retrieve their backpacks Friday.

The program is open to any student at the school, at 2051 Brendon Drive in Dunwoody.

Many schools are working through programs to offer free breakfast and lunch for all its students to eliminate any stigmas associated with receiving free meals at schools. Others have taken nontraditional paths to ensure students are eating, including offering dinner before students leave for the day, and serving meals during extended breaks.

About the Author

Marlon A. Walker is an education reporter covering DeKalb County.

Follow Marlon A. Walker on facebookFollow Marlon A. Walker on twitter
More Stories

Keep Reading

Students put their cellphone in a box before heading to class at Sylvan Hills Middle School in Atlanta. The Georgia Department of Education wants lawmakers to expand a cellphone ban. (AJC file)

Credit: Ziyu Julian Zhu/AJC

Georgia school cellphone ban should expand to high school, state ed leaders say

The Georgia Department of Education wants to ban cellphones in high schools too, not just K-8 classrooms.

Acting Dekalb superintendent gets salary bump, 1-year contract to ensure ‘stable leadership’

The contract, obtained via an open records request, doesn't mean Sauce will be the permanent superintendent of the DeKalb County School District.

Lovett School gets ‘historic’ $30 million gift from Rollins family

The gift honors the oldest child of Randall and Peggy Rollins, who died in 1970.

The Latest

Students put their cellphone in a box before heading to class at Sylvan Hills Middle School in Atlanta. The Georgia Department of Education wants lawmakers to expand a cellphone ban. (AJC file)

Credit: Ziyu Julian Zhu/AJC

Georgia school cellphone ban should expand to high school, state ed leaders say

Acting Dekalb superintendent gets salary bump, 1-year contract to ensure ‘stable leadership’

Lovett School gets ‘historic’ $30 million gift from Rollins family

Featured

Tracy Woodard from InTown Cares (left) and Lauren Hopper from Mercy Care organization work with residents at the Copperton Street encampment in August 2024. (Miguel Martinez / AJC)

Credit: Miguel Martinez

‘Worst nightmares come true.’ Atlanta confronts shift in homelessness funding.

Trump’s overhaul threatens permanent housing for an estimated 600 Atlanta households and 170,000 people nationwide, advocates warn.

Microsoft’s newest AI ‘superfactory’ opens at sprawling Fayetteville campus

One of the largest data center campuses under construction in Georgia has its first operational tenant, and it’s one of the most recognizable names in technology.

Atlanta officials quietly rebrand city’s DEI office

The city of Atlanta office overseeing diversity, equity and inclusion is getting a rebrand amid assaults at the federal level on such initiatives.