Cindy Paasch, an Americorps member at Harvesters in Kansas City, Mo., puts food items into a plastic sack that will go inside a backpack as part of a school nutrition program. The BackSnack program will have more than 10,000 children participating this coming school year.

A program that’s aimed at ensuring that Lawrence school students have nutritional food on the weekend has proven popular, and organizers believe it will expand when school resumes in the fall.

The program — called BackSnack — is designed to help children who otherwise might go hungry. Last school year was the first that Lawrence participated in the program. Four elementaries were selected, with 25 students at each school taking home backpacks of food each Friday.

“The program is growing; the need is large, and we’re going to meet as much of that need as we possibly can,” said Ellen Feldhausen, communications director for Harvesters in Kansas City, Mo., the community food bank that provides the food for BackSnack.

Last week, two BackSnack volunteers were honored by the Lawrence school board for their work. Trinity Episcopal Church parishioners Tod Sutton and Greg Hazen spent several months helping stuff backpacks full of nutritional food for students from low-income families.

Woodlawn School Principal Jeanne Fridell first heard about the program from Hazen, who is her brother. She contacted Harvesters. Fridell’s school was approved for the program, along with Kennedy, New York and Pinckney schools. The schools were selected because of the high number of students who receive free or reduced-price lunches; they are also known as Title 1 schools.

Pictured here are food items that are given to children participating in the backpack food program through Harvesters in Kansas City, Missouri.

The Lawrence schools got a late start with BackSnack. It ran in Lawrence just from March through May. But Fridell described it as a success.

“The parents have been very, very appreciate, and the kids really enjoy it,” the principal said.

Each week, a truckload of sealed plastic bags, full of two days worth of food, arrived at Trinity Episcopal, where volunteers filled the backpacks with the food and then delivered them to the schools in time to be sent home with students on Friday. On Tuesday, the volunteers picked up the backpacks at the schools, and the process started again.

To avoid any embarrassment for the students who participated, the BackSnack group went to “nutrition club” each Friday afternoon, where they received their backpacks and lessons on proper diet. Both the food and the lessons about food have been beneficial for her students, Fridell said.

“I know it’s working when the kids are asking us on Tuesday if it’s nutrition club time,” Fridell said.