welcome message
Who We Are
Welcome to Feeding Empty Little Tummies, dedicated to feeding Manatee County’s most needy – homeless and food insecure students – one backpack at a time!
An Elementary school is a place where the first social and community life of a child starts. It becomes a second home for boys and girls, all of whom are naturally curious about the world around them, as well as excited about learning. Unfortunately, there’s approximately 3,500 homeless in Manatee County, and many of these are children.
In 2010 Jane L Evers introduced Feeding Empty Little Tummies to three Manatee County public schools. Today, Jane’s vision to provide nutritious meals to homeless students is still being fulfilled by our dedicated board, volunteers and community leaders who service 32 schools and over 800 homeless and food insecure children.
Each child in the F.E.L.T. backpack program is pre-qualified by Project Heart, the Manatee School District’s Title X Homeless Education Program, providing education related support services for students who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.
Project Heart comes under the McKinney-Vento Education of Homeless Children and Youth Assistance Act that provides defined qualifications.
These include children and youth sharing housing due to the loss of housing, economic hardship or a similar reason, living in motels, hotels, trailer parks or camp grounds due to lack of alternative accommodations, living in emergency or transitional shelters, or living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, as well as children awaiting permanent Foster Care.
Sponsor Benefits
Corporate Sponsorship
Corporate or business sponsorships are an important investment in our community. And, charitable sponsorships benefit both the non-profit and its business sponsors.
Sponsorship can be a strategic way to help build a business’s brand recognition and increase community awareness by doing good.
Sponsoring an event for a charitable organization can be a powerful way to raise brand awareness, create positive press, and build relationships with community leaders and residents.
join the journey
Every Moment Counts
Any journey that opens your eyes and touches your heart is one that is worth taking.
Feeding Empty Little Tummies is a unique program designed to help end child hunger in our local community. It was founded in 2010 to feed our homeless children on weekends, a time when these children often go hungry.
Today, F.E.L.T. is the only backpack program in Manatee County that provides proper fresh nutritious food to over 800 children weekly.
Proper food and nutrition is essential to human well-being. It provides the body with nourishment, offers livelihoods that lift people out of poverty, and brings communities together. Although food is a basic human need, too many children and their families are trapped in a cycle of hunger by forces beyond their immediate control, such as poverty, disaster, conflict and inequality.
The World Health Organization considers hunger to be the single greatest threat to global health. Hunger is cyclical and generational: it inhibits children’s ability to learn to their fullest potential, which can hinder their future and trap them and their families in continued poverty and more hunger.
Feeding Empty Little Tummies can’t eliminate world hunger, but it can contribute to helping relieve hunger for numerous children and their families in Manatee County with your help.
Volunteers are the heart of our operation.
FELT is a based on the foundation of volunteer, donor-generated charity. All proceeds go directly to providing homeless children nutritious food while not in school.
We are thankful for our volunteers who graciously give their time and resources without compensation or reimbursement.
Local businesses taking action as a F.E.L.T Partner can position your company as an organization that is intimately involved in our community to support our children.
You also get first-hand interactions with leaders in the community, as well as prominent promotional opportunities on the FELTinc.org website, and in communications to the media and community members.
Our elementary school helps each boy and girl to become a responsible and independent student, one who is a creative thinker, respectful of himself and others, and appreciative of the differences amongst people.
Our school is dedicated to teaching students through positive learning experiences so that they will be successful at the elementary school.
Frequently Asked Questions
FAQ
For more than 11 years, we’ve been passionate about eliminating child hunger.
You can help eliminate child hunger in Manatee County when you shop on AmazonSmile and select Feeding Empty Little Tummies as your charity of choice.
AmazonSmile is operated by Amazon with the same products, prices, and shopping features as Amazon.com. The difference is that when you shop on AmazonSmile, the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the purchase price of eligible products to the charitable organization of your choice.
To shop at AmazonSmile simply go to smile.amazon.com from the web browser on your computer or mobile device. You may also want to add a bookmark to smile.amazon.com to make it even easier to return and start your shopping at AmazonSmile.
On your first visit to AmazonSmile smile.amazon.com, you need to select Feeding Empty Little Tummies as the charitable organization to receive donations from eligible purchases before you begin shopping. AmazonSmile will remember your selection, and then every eligible purchase you make at smile.amazon.com will result in a donation to F.E.L.T.
Tens of millions of products on AmazonSmile are eligible for donations. You will see eligible products marked “Eligible for AmazonSmile donation” on their product detail pages. Recurring Subscribe-and-Save purchases and subscription renewals are not currently eligible.
Yes, you use the same account on Amazon.com and AmazonSmile. Your shopping cart, Wish List, wedding or baby registry, and other account settings are also the same.
important milestones
F.E.L.T. Timeline
With a community of over 1500 homeless or food insecure children, the F.E.L.T. Backpack Meals for Children Program grew from 3 schools and 80 children to 72 schools and 1355 children, with almost 1,000,000 million meals served. Our goal with your help, is to end child hunger for all 1500 children in Manatee County.
Feeding Empty Little Tummies Started
Provided Meals to 65 children in 12 Schools
Moved F.E.L.T. to a Commercial Building to Store More Food and Distribute More Backpacks.Rented
Purchased and renovated a New Building to Expand Operations
COMPANIES SUPPORTING THE BACKPACK PROJECT
Our Supporters



