Upstate Backpack Blessings

What a Blessing to See what happens when a Group of Caring, Loving, Sharing Community Folks gets Together for a Serving Purpose!
Thank You Purple Team for Packing a RECORD 562 Bags on this beautiful Autumn Day!
Thank YOU ALL for the Gift of your Time and Energy -
Donna, Jennifer, Jayne, John, Nancy, Paul, Kelly, Riley, Ashley AND Our Friends from FIHS Bella, Christian, Marley and Mr. Mike! We truly enjoy Your Visits to see us and participate in the Packing Events. You are a Great Partner!

It was a dark, gloomy, stormy day...
But inside the Facility it was a Day filled with Smiles and Sunshine!
Saturday was 10/10 a perfect day.
Two different groups braved the elements to Support Us.
They together packed up more than 525 Supplemental Food Bags
that will be delivered this week.
Pat Davis and her Ladies from the Alice Smith Sunday school class at
Simpsonville First Upstate Church, AND Kaylee Munson and Friends Group,
Both of which have been LONG-TERM supporters and helpers to Us as a Mission to the Children of the Upstate.
What a Blessing to see the two groups of more than 25 Volunteers melded together to be the Hands and Feet living out the phrase, "Love your neighbor."
A HUGE THANK YOU GOES OUT TO:
Kaylee M Pat D
Jerson M Debbie A
Caidon M Kay
Danielle S Dianne K
Dennis S Connie L
Charlotte S Jane D
Hector C JoAnn G
Yari C Susan P
Mia C Anita G
Oliver C Patti R
Maria S Susan C
Daniela S
Judy C

And one of our Regular weekly Volunteers, Jane V.

What an INCREDIBLE GIFT of Time and Energy ALL of these Beautiful People Gave US!
Thank You, THANK YOU!

Dear Readers...Have you EVER been that busy? So busy that you forget to be grateful for what is going on around you? This Director is right there. The past 10 days have flown by in a flash, and we have been SO VERY BLESSED by your Prayers, your Support, your Donations and your Care. Food Drives, Group Bag Packing Events, Financial Donations and MOST OF ALL Prayers for Us. We KNOW that we cannot accomplish Our Mission without You the Community Supporting, Surrounding and Lifting Us UP! For those things and Ten Thousand More (IFYKYK) WE are Grateful. Thank You.
I did not get photos of most of this week, but just know, we saw you show up and care for us. Thank You,
THANK YOU to Fork Shoals Elementary for a GREAT FOOD DRIVE.We TRULY Appreciate the PTA for giving us their TIME, ENERGY and FOOD!
Big Shout OUT to Karley H., a Brashier High student who organized a Wonderful Food Donation as a Service Project!!
A Continuing Huge Thanks to Pastor Boyer and His Congregation at Fellowship Baptist Church in Fountain Inn for their LONGSTANDING Support for us in So Many Ways! We are Grateful to YOU ALL. The Food Donations you faithfully provide are so Very Useful!
A VERY GREAT Thank You to the Crosswalk Sunday School Class at First Baptist Simpsonville Upstate Church. They provide us with a Massive amount of plastic bags (one of those gritty needs that are not flashy!) and even More Astonishing, they provided us with more than 50% of our goal of sending out Peanut Butter jars. An incredible 320 Jars!

More to follow, and I promise to take some pictures next time.Thanks for Walking with US! H

If you have never felt the energy in a small room of more than 50 6th, 7th and 8th Grade students, then my friend, you are truly missing out on a Life Experience! Thank YOU and a Huge Shout OUT to Ms. Sandra Godfrey's of Ralph Chandler Middle School "Service Leadership Course" Students! They listened, they packed bags, they shelved bags and they double bagged some bags! All done very correctly and very quickly. They packed more than 520 individual Supplemental food bags for distribution this week and they double bagged more than 500 bags for the next group coming in Soon! Thank YOU Students! What a Difference YOU MAKE! It Takes Community to Serve Community!!!!

Partnerships with Community are a Tremendous Blessing to Us. We are enormously Grateful to the Golden Strip Sunrise Rotary Club for their WONDERFUL gift of Support. We are so BLESSED to have Organizations that Walk with Us such as This. Thank YOU ALL for the Blessing You Are and Will Be to Our Children and Students!
They also showed up with Very Useful Food Donations Too!!!

Thank YOU Fork Shoals Baptist Church for Your Gift of Pop Tarts! We so appreciate your Walking With Us! Grateful for the Hands and Feet that you Provide to Us. Thank YOU Michelle and Linda for your Time and Energy. Y'all are a Blessing!

What a Wonderfully Busy (Is this Fake Fall Y'all?) Week! The Blue Team came in to pack and Welcomed Guests to help us Pack our Supplemental Food Bags. Good thing too, we packed up 495 bags for delivery to 22 different Schools!! 😮😁
We are tremendously Grateful to Welcome Back our Partners from Fountain Inn High School (The Furies!) Thank you very much Bella, Christian, Marley, Mr. Mike and Stacey! We enjoyed Your Gift of Time and Energy!

And just that quick it was the Third Monday! We welcomed our new addition, the Purple Team to our Facility. They were Wonderful and Full of Energy and Ear-to-Ear Smiles! We are Truly Grateful to have Volunteers like these who just keep showing Up! Thanks John, Riley, Kelly, Nancy, Noelle, Donna, Sherry, Karen, Jennifer, Deb, Lok-Yi and Jayne! (Special tip-o-the-hat and Thank You to the Upstate Woman's Club!)

Summer Break and End of School Year 2025 - 2026!

Greetings,
We send our heartfelt gratitude that we are continuing to be able to accomplish the Mission that is in front of us. We are Blessed by love, care and support from so many wonderful Brothers and Sisters as well as multiple staunchly faithful supporting Churches!

We were supported in an increased measure by multiple food drives held by different Schools, persons, neighborhoods and local companies.
Of particular note, 12 of our 21 schools stepped into the support role for us providing more than $22,000 of food items.

Additionally, we collected more than 2,000 jars of peanut butter and distributed them at 4 junctures throughout the school year at a nominal value of $5,500. We also have been gifted enough to send out a jar to every student at the beginning of the next school year.

During this semester we added an additional school to our Mission, bringing our total to 21.
We packed and delivered 8,764 supplemental food bags.
These bags total more than 43,800 pounds of food items.
We averaged 457 bags per week.

A significant change we made is that any food that we absolutely cannot use for our Mission is passed to the Canebrake Fire Department, which they use to restock and supply the "Blessing Boxes or Compassion Pantries" that are collocated with their stations.

We continue to be supported by a true cadre of Volunteers. Our current total of regular/repeating volunteers is 40 with additional personnel coming from Ft. Inn High School students.

We also hosted 9 Groups on various occasions from a variety of types and locations such as WMU, Mission Minded Women, various Sunday Schools, Greenville County Schools, and Church Youth Groups.

For the overall School Year of 2025-26:
15,560 Bags Packed and Delivered.
63,740 Pounds of Food
457 Children's Lives affected weekly (avg.)

Goals:
Remain where we are located physically.
Increase visibility by speaking engagements.
Create a third packing crew to facilitate less wear and tear on volunteers
and to allow more outside groups to come in thus increasing community awareness.