BLACKSBURG — The New River Valley Chapter of the 100+ Women Who Care has awarded more than $11,000 to Bobcat Backpacks, a community-led weekend food program that provides healthy, dependable food for some 180 students in Radford City Schools during the school year and summer.
Bobcat Backpacks also supplies food to school-based pantries at both Dalton Intermediate and Radford High School serving about 50 students every week. The mission of the program is to decrease childhood hunger in Radford by providing meals to children receiving free or reduced lunch who would not otherwise have adequate access to food.
Jenny Riffe, the co-founder of Bobcat Backpacks and a member of the NRV chapter, expressed her gratitude to the 100+ Women Who Care when she said, “This generous contribution helps us maintain the consistent level of support we give to one of our community’s most vulnerable populations: children struggling with hunger. The donation gives us the funding to provide 1,333 bags of weekend food to at-risk children in Radford. This money was used to purchase food at our local Food Lion at wholesale prices. It covered two months of our costs.”
More information about Bobcat Backpacks is available at www.BobcatBackpacks.org or Facebook.com/BobcatBackpacks.
At each 100+ WWC quarterly meeting, the names of three local not-for-profits are drawn from a bucket. Each organization must have a 100+ Women Who Care NRV member sponsor willing to present on its behalf. The group’s membership area includes the counties of Montgomery, Giles, Pulaski and Floyd and the City of Radford.
The 100+ WWC chapter meets on the third Tuesday of January, April, July and October. Committed members donate $100 every quarter, and each meeting lasts no more than one hour. More information about the 100+ Women Who Care is available at www.100womenwhocarenrv.com. The group’s email address is nrv100wwc@gmail.com.
