April, her husband Brent and their 4 kids live in Senoia, GA, where they served their community in full-time ministry for close to a decade. Currently, the Anderson’s continue to love and serve the people of Senoia running a local coffee shop and cafe in the heart of town. April’s love and compassion for serving people led her to begin Backpack Buddies in 2011.

April first heard of Backpack Buddies at a National Church Conference. When she returned home she immediately started meeting with the Board of Education officials to assess the child hunger needs in our community. She was astounded by what she learned; there were over 200 homeless children in our county and almost half of the school’s students were dependent on the “Free and Reduced” lunch program. She started sharing this information with friends and family, and within weeks she began collecting food.

Backpack Buddies of Georgia was launched in February 2011, serving two schools and 36 children. Before the organization celebrated its first anniversary it had already doubled the number of schools and nearly tripled the amount of children served. In January 2018, Backpack Buddies took its biggest leap of faith by serving every school in Coweta County.