Working directly with schools throughout Central Virginia to feed hungry kids on weekends.
Currently serving schools in Powhatan, Chesterfield, Henrico, Hanover, Goochland, Buckingham, Amelia, Cumberland, and the City of Hopewell, Virginia.
Backpacks of Love, Inc. (BPOL) was founded in Powhatan County, Virginia in 2011. BPOL’s Founder, Bobby Fulcher, was attending a Rotary Club convention and learned of a program that provided weekend food for needy school age children. As a child, Bobby experienced the struggles of not having ample food to eat. Therefore, his passion to feed children is his mission and vision.
Bobby took that concept a step further by involving the Powhatan County school administration personnel. This was the key ingredient as the school administrators offered the best system to identify the needy children and was the ideal avenue for delivery of the food packs. Bobby then talked to community leaders and came up with the core group of intended directors. The legal work was donated by Scott Stovall and Rusty Gates at Cowan Gates, PC. The Corporation was chartered and began its work.
The inaugural Board of Directors met with the local school administration personnel to develop a strategy and process to help relieve hunger in the boys and girls. The initial trial included 23 elementary age children that had been identified as most needy.
In October, 2011 BPOL began to deliver weekly packs containing various tasty and nutritious food items for children to eat over the weekend to Pocahontas Elementary School in Powhatan, VA.
The Board feels the present approach is the ideal distribution model and is capable of rapid growth. The community has responded very generously and the future is bright. Our program is strictly designed to supplement what the children already consume on the weekends.
Each bag is equipped with six (6) meals that are intended to get the children through the weekend. In many cases, this would be the only food they would eat for the entire weekend and often provides food for their siblings.
The mission of Backpacks of Love is to eliminate hunger in school-age children in Central Virginia by providing food for their weekends.