Volunteer Opportunities - Summer 2025

Fall Packing Dates: We have a few packing days scheduled throughout the fall. The dates will be live here soon! Please keep checking back as dates will fill up fast!

Wednesday Morning Crew: We have a great team of volunteers that come to our office every Wednesday to help us pack bags. If you would like to be a part of that group, just show up at our office on a Wednesday morning at 9am-10:30am and join in on the fun!

Break Bag Delivery Drivers: The week before each school break (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Winter & Spring Breaks) we need delivery drivers to help take our Break Bags to the schools. These are larger reusable grocery bags that we send out to each school in the county. During these weeks we try to give our regular delivery drivers a break and seek more volunteers. If you are interested in helping deliver these bags, please watch for the sign up once school starts in the fall or email lburnett.bpb@gmail.com

Thursday Morning Packing Crew: We would love to have a regular small group of volunteers who could come in on specific Thursdays of each month during the school year to help us unload, set up and reload bins from 9:30-11am. You may sign up by emailing  nmcnutt.bpb@gmail.com or if you have a small group of 5-10 that would like to commit to helping us in this way, please email Nicole McNutt as well.

Sub Drivers: Each week, we have some of our regular delivery drivers out for various reasons (sickness, vacation, etc.) and we are always looking for people to deliver bags to these schools. If you would like to be added to our sub driver GroupMe page, please email Nicole at nmcnutt.bpb@gmail.com to be added. Each week we will send out the need on the GroupMe page and you can volunteer for a specific school that is listed when you are available.

If you have any questions regarding volunteer times, please reach out to Nicole at nmcnutt.bpb@gmail.com  

Donations Always Needed

Backpack Buddies is constantly updating our food needs. At this time the food list below has the items listed that we need most. We are sending out over 1,600 bags each week. If you are able to shop for us during this time, that is greatly appreciated but a monetary donation also can help us go further with our mission “because hunger doesn’t take the weekend off.” We are so grateful for the outpouring of community support and cannot thank you enough for partnering with us. Our office hours are Wednesday & Thursday from 9:00am-12:00pm to receive food donations at 96 Werz Industrial Blvd (back side of the building at the roll up door). Thank you again for helping us feed hungry children in our county.

• Individual Fruit Cups

• Ramen Noodle Packets

• Canned Soup

• Canned Ravioli

• Individual Grits or Oatmeal Packets

• Granola Bars

• Small Boxes of Cereal (individual servings)

• Mac-n-Cheese boxes

• Individually wrapped snacks (peanut butter crackers, cheez-its, chips, cookies, etc.)

The bold items, are the items we are always needing to have more on our shelves. Each weekend bag includes 2 breakfast items, 2 lunch items, 2 fruit cups, and a variety of snacks. Please do not send any Little Debbie type snacks as they get crushed in the bags.  Any monetary or food donations from this list are greatly appreciated to help keep our shelves stocked with food.

***If you would like to chose a few items from this list to host a food drive in your work place or neighborhood, please feel free to do so. We have found that it is best to only list 3-4 items as the larger list can be overwhelming and harder to remember when walking through the grocery store. If you have any further questions on hosting a food drive, please reach out to Nicole at nmcnutt.bpb@gmail.com

We need your help!!

Our shelves are emptying quickly and we are only able to stock food for 2 weeks at a time. Typically we can get a lot of our food from the Atlanta Food Bank, but periodically the items we need we have to purchase from Sam's each week which costs anywhere from $3,000-$5,000.

If you can host a food drive at your office, after school group, neighborhood or any other place you are involved, we would greatly appreciate the help in stocking our shelves.

The items we need most are:

OATMEAL PACKETS
INDIVIDUAL FRUIT CUPS
BOXES OF MAC-N-CHEESE
CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP (10.75oz can)

All food may be dropped off at our office during our office hours or by appointment.
 

Let's Celebrate our Community Partners

We are so grateful for our community partners and their generous support of Backpack Buddies. Here are just a few of our local partners:

CENTRAL CHURCH

100 WOMEN WHO CARE COWETA

AIRGROUP

KELLER WILLIAMS - KARES FOR KIDS

FIRST UNITED METHODIST SENOIA

KASON INDUSTRIES

NEWCO

DELTA COMMUNITY CREDIT UNION

PILOTS CLUB OF NEWNAN

SOUTHSIDE CHURCH

LEGACY CHRISTIAN CHURCH

ST. PAUL'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH

SOUTHCREST CHURCH