Butler Area School District Kids Weekend Backpack Program organizer Stephanie Slear unwraps food containers to make take-home meal packages for students for the holidays at Crossfire United Methodist Church in Center Township.

The Butler Area School District's Kids' Weekend Backpack Program provides food to 287 students in eight elementary schools every week.

The district's winter break is nearly two weeks, from Dec. 22 to Jan. 3. To prepare the students for the lack of free school lunches, the volunteers who run the backpack program are packing more than $5,000 worth of food that is meant to last them the entire break.

“For the Christmas break, we'll be giving them 55 items each,” said Audray Muscatello Yost, a team leader for the backpack program. “We give food that is not only nutritious, but is single-serve and it can only be microwaveable and you only have to add water, so it's easy for the children to make.”

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