DURANT — Students at Northwest Heights Elementary will receive hope, in the form of food, this school year. Northwest Heights Elementary recently joined the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma’s Food for Kids program to fight childhood hunger.

“We have several students that don’t have electricity, running water, etc.” said one Backpack Program Coordinator. “We give all of our students a free breakfast, and we know they are provided with a good, healthy lunch through the week. The Backpack Program reassures us that they have something to eat over the weekend until we can feed them again.”

Through the Backpack Program, children receive a backpack full of kid-friendly, non-perishable and nutritious food on Friday to sustain them over weekends and school holidays. After joining the program, most children pay better attention in class and improve their academic performance.

A gift of $200 will support a chronically hungry student in Food for Kids for an entire school year.

Established in 1980, the Regional Food Bank is the largest private hunger-relief organization in the state of Oklahoma. In Fiscal Year 2012, the nonprofit distributed 42.2 million pounds of food and products through a network of nearly 1,000 charitable feeding programs and schools in 53 central and western Oklahoma counties. Each week, the organization provides enough food to feed more than 90,000 hungry Oklahomans.

Through January 15th, Chesapeake will match all donations made to the Regional Food Bank - up to $1 million! Gifts to the Regional Food Bank’s Food for Kids programs can now help twice as many children struggling with hunger. To make a tax-deductible donation to the Regional Food Bank, call 405.604.7111 or visit regionalfoodbank.org.

The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma is a private, 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization that acts as a link through which the food industry and community may donate food and other goods. The products are then distributed to nearly 1,000 schools and charitable feeding programs in 53 central and western Oklahoma counties. In fiscal year 2012, the Food Bank distributed 42.2 million pounds of food and product to help the charitable community effectively feed people in need. Since its inception in 1980, the Food Bank has distributed more than 457 million pounds of food to feed Oklahoma’s hungry.