Fall 2021 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

September marks the one-year anniversary of starting our beef stick production at Colorado State University’s College of Animal Sciences. Thanks to the hard work of many individuals and the generous support of our donors, we have produced and donated over 350,000 beef sticks to eight backpack programs operating around the state and counting!

Our fight against childhood hunger is ongoing and the need is still growing due to impacts of Covid-19. According to Hunger Free Colorado, 1 in 3 children is at risk of hunger during the pandemic. When children are hungry, they fall behind in their physical, mental and emotional development.

Backpack programs in the state have seen a 75% increase in the number of backpacks given out each week. We need your support so that we can keep producing enough beef sticks to support the growth of these backpack programs. Every dollar that you give, helps us to produce 2 beef sticks to children in need. Please give today!

Sincerely,

Dan Byers

Executive Director of Beef Sticks for Backpacks

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“We are now serving more hungry children than ever in the history of Weld Food Bank. Protein is the most difficult and expensive item for food banks to procure. We are unbelievably grateful for the partnership with Beef Sticks for Backpacks, which ensures that every child will have protein over the weekend.”

-Bob O’Connor, CEO of Weld Food Bank

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Expanding Distribution

We have ambitious plans as we start the fall school year. We're increasing our production from 10,000 to 15,000 beef sticks per week and will be adding two new backpack programs to our growing list of programs that we support in Colorado. Starting this September, we will now be supporting Food for Thought Denver and St. Luke’s Mission Backpack program with beef sticks for their programs each week.

Food for Thought Denver is located in Denver and supports 72 schools in the Denver area. In 2018/2019, Food for Thought Denver distributed 192,024 backpacks. St. Luke’s Mission Backpack program is located in Westcliff and distributes 50 backpacks each week. With the addition of these two programs, Beef Sticks for Backpacks (BSFB) now supports eight backpack programs operating in Weld, Larimer, Custer, Morgan, Mesa, Denver, Arapahoe and Jefferson counties.

Sell Beef Sticks for Your Next Fundraiser

BSFB is excited to announce a new fundraising opportunity where approved local organizations can help raise money for their organization and BSFB by selling our beef sticks. Unlike other food products sold through fundraisers, our beef sticks are made locally and proceeds from all sales support feeding local kids. Selling a beef stick for $2 will raise $.50 for your organization and will allow BSFB to provide one beef stick to a child in need. If you know an organization that would be interested in selling beef sticks for their next fundraiser, please reach out to dbyers@beefbankcolorado.org.

Texas Roadhouse Event Packs 100,000 Meals for Kids

In August, BSFB participated in a humanitarian event with Texas Roadhouse where 200 employees of Texas Roadhouse’s corporate team worked to pack 50,000 meals into 10,000 backpacks. In addition to the food donated for the pack event, Texas Roadhouse donated an additional 50,000 meals to Totes of Hope. 10,000 of the backpacks were distributed by the Food Bank of the Rockies’ Totes of Hope program, 5,000 by Weld Food Bank’s backpack program in Weld County and 5,000 will be distributed by Kidspak in Larimer County.

A huge thank you goes out to Texas Roadhouse for their support of children’s backpack programs in our state! With their help, we were able to feed 20,000 kids who face food insecurity on the weekends.

Thank You to our Sponsors