Press Release
The Citizens for Backus/AB are honoured to accept a grant of $4,800 from the Northland Foundation of Duluth, Mn.
The funding will be used towards programs at Backus that provide food access to International Falls and surrounding communities.
The two programs receiving the funding are the Community Café and the Summer Food Service Program.
Community Café provides free hot, nutritious meals to community members two nights a week, free of charge.
This service is available for all individuals in the International Falls area (there are no income guidelines to qualify for the meals).
According to its mission statement, the Community Café is “dedicated to reducing hunger and building a stronger community.”
Meanwhile, the Summer Food Service Program, which began in 2010, provides a free school-type lunch to children aged 18 and under.
This allows children access to a nutritious lunch year-round, along with an open gym period to promote activity.
The Community Café and Summer Food Service Program aim to fill a gap and help families to stretch their food budget farther.
The “Café” serves an average of 57 meals each evening, with one-third of those typically served to children.
Since the summer meals began in June, 2010 and the “Café” started in December, 2012, Backus has served more than 66,500 free meals to children and adults in our community.
The Community Café and Summer Food Service Program are co-sponsored with Falls Hunger Coalition on site at the Backus Community Center, along with numerous other programs and services that are available to community members.
Other food access programs supported jointly by Backus and the Falls Hunger Coalition are the Backus Community Market and Ruby’s Pantry.
