The backpack buddy program serves school-age children in several Cooke County schools, with a majority being our GISD kids. Every Friday, volunteers gather items from VISTO and stuff “backpacks” with snacks and food for more than 700 children. These snacks help to get them through the weekend until free school meals can be provided again on Monday. 

As a DISTRICT, we are aiming to gather 5,000 backpack buddy items for VISTO on behalf of GISD.  ALL non-perishable food will be accepted, but single-serve items for backpacks are preferred. Please see the flyer for additional information and examples of items.  We will be accepting donations at all GISD campuses for the next two weeks (January 17 - January 27) in preparation for the "game day" drop off at VISTO on February 1st.   Each campus will have a person in charge of collecting and counting items. 

As an extra incentive to encourage participation from our staff and our families, if we reach our 5,000-item goal as a DISTRICT, Dr. Stewart will take a pie in the face and it will be on Facebook live for everyone to enjoy!

In addition, the campus totals will be tallied to determine which campus has the highest percentage of items collected compared to the staff/student count.  The Principal of the winning campus will also get a pie in the face and Dr. Stewart's pie in the face will happen at that campus.

For example, Chalmers has 780 students and staff.  If they collect 1000 items, they are at 128%.  If GIS (450 students and staff) collect 1000 items, they are at 222% and would beat Chalmers.  In this case, both Mrs. Brito AND Dr. Stewart would get a pie in the face, and it would take place on the Intermediate campus.  

Have fun and have a friendly competition at your campuses!  Thanks in advance for your participation in this DISTRICT/COMMUNITY endeavor!