(Image Credit: Curtis Goodrum / CFJC Today)

By Curtis Goodrum

STARFISH BACKPACK

Sponsor-sustained Starfish Backpack program going strong for Kamloops Food Bank

Jan 16, 2026 | 6:00 PM

KAMLOOPS – Starfish Backpacks are delivered across the community by volunteers. The Kamloops Food Bank has been running the program for eight years. What sets the Starfish Backpack program apart is the fact that the food is funded through sponsors instead of donated items.

“The Starfish Backpack program started eight years ago with the downtown Rotary Club in Kamloops and we did a pilot project with SD 73 just to see how this would work. It became so successful very quickly and we identified a big gap with elementary school students in the school district who didn’t have enough food on the weekends,” said Bernadette Siracky, the CEO of Kamloops Food Bank.

The food items are sorted by an assembly line of volunteers who put together the backpacks and make sure they’re filled with food for the kids.

“It’s the camaraderie with the team here when all the staff and managers get together and do this, because we obviously work together in different ways. When we get here, we’re all just kind of the frontline worker doing the thing and elbowing each other and having fun,” said Robert Case, a volunteer with Starfish Backpacks.

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Each company that sponsors Starfish Backpacks has a team that comes down and makes sure all the food gets delivered.

“Right now, we probably have like 15 people there, but that’s out of a group of maybe 75 people that alternate out. It’s staff managers, supervisors. It’s always kind of a different team, a growing team. We try to pull people into it as we go through the season,” said Case.

The food bank has seen increased need in the community in recent years and Siracky hopes Starfish Backpacks help ease that need.

“I can’t say what these children are feeling, but what I can tell you is they are getting food to go home on the weekend. It is a relief for those kids and the families knowing that there’s food coming into the home on the weekend and there’s a bit of financial relief, and it’s the right thing to do as a community,” said Siracky.

There are 40 Starfish days throughout the school year.