Meet Our Van
The Ravens Love a Good Caw-s!
Which is why they joined us to distribute our weekly bags of food and backpacks of school supplies and officially unveil our van!
The Ravens Foundation has been a partner of Weekend Backpacks for several years. The Foundation was instrumental in our purchase of a new cargo van early this year. Today they showcased their commitment to making a positive impact beyond the field at Arlington Elementary School. Ravens players, cheerleaders, and Poe himself (the Ravens’ mascot) came and gave out bags and backpacks to the students there.
While the students didn’t know what was coming their excitement was obvious and, when the van door opened and revealed the surprise, it was audible! The kids had fun meeting the team, posing for pictures, and seeing firsthand that the people they look up to care about their education and wellbeing.
“We have a big impact on the community and kids look up to us, so any time we have availability, and we can get out and do something like this it’s important,” player Tyler Linderbaum said, as he and his teammates Roquan Smith, Trenton Simpson, and Marcus Williams unloaded the van and passed out the bags.
The event was also covered by WMAR and WBAL.
The need for a van came about in early 2024, when Weekend Backpacks partnered with The Library Project to add ten schools and 600 bags to our program. This jump – from 1,200 bags of food per week to 1,800 – necessitated a lot of growth. One of the biggest challenges we faced was figuring out how to deliver all of these bags. While the majority of our bags are taken by volunteer drivers to our partner schools, we now had multiple schools requesting over 100 bags a week and spread out all throughout the city. Thanks to the Ravens Foundation, The Fund for Educational Excellence, and The Herbert Bearman Foundation we found the answer in the form of a brand-new cargo van.
Our van was purchased in February and put to work right away, with staff using it to deliver hundreds of bags of food weekly for the rest of the school year. Over the summer, while students enjoyed a break from school, the van was busy getting ready for the next year. We had shelves, a safety divider, and new tie-downs installed thanks to the Maryland Food Ban. We can now securely fit more than ever inside. The exterior was redone by the Ravens, getting wrapped completely in purple with images of Poe and a backpack of food and the Maryland Food Bank’s logo. Not only does this show off who we are and what we do, it will hopefully help the kids be excited to see us and further destigmatize receiving bags of food.
Thanks to the support of all of our sponsors, we’re able to continue to grow and better serve our community. And thanks to the Ravens, we’re doing it in style!
Photos by Shawn Hubbard, Baltimore Ravens
