See the SNACpack program in action on News 13!

After some digging, they found out why.

“I was hungry over the weekends and didn’t have food,” Richard said.

During the week, he could get breakfast and lunch at school, but Richard’s biological mother didn’t have food to give him and his 5 siblings on weekends.

“It’s just exhausting to go to school with like no food and no energy,” said Richard, now a senior at Saratoga Springs High School.

When the Trimmings learned of Richard’s story they knew they had to do something.

And this it.

SNACpack (Saratoga Nutrition Assistance for Children) gives children and families the food they need to get through weekends and school vacations.

When they started the SNACpack program in 2015, they served about 35 families, they’re now up to 160.

“In Saratoga, though we’re a land of plenty, there’s also a need. There’s poverty here, just like everywhere else,” the charity’s founder and leader.

Because SNACpack doesn’t have a place of its own to store food, every Thursday they buy it from stores and the food bank—things like cereal, vegetables, fruit, and mac and cheese, and they load it into bags and send it out to the 8 schools in the district.

At the schools the bags are put inside backpacks that kids take home over the weekends and school vacations.

“The mission of this program is to feed the children all year long,” Trimmings said.

Richard is now a full-time member of the Trimmings family.

He’s excelling at school and in sports. Because he’s getting the food he needs, and he’s happy that others are too.

“It’s just great because now they can eat and they can go to school and be productive and get good grades,” he says with a smile on his face.

Trimmings says monetary donations are the most helpful because SNACpack is part of the regional food bank and can buy food for less than retail prices.