Hundreds of local students go home to a house without food. These Bluffton runners raised $21,000 to change that

More than half of Beaufort County Schools students qualify for free or reduced lunch. But that doesn’t mean there’s food in the kitchen when they’re home.

For the past 6 years, the Backpack Buddies of Bluffton and Hardeeville has worked to send students in need home for the weekend with nutritious food, about 3lbs. per child. And the nonprofit just got a big helping hand from a local fitness group.

F3 Bluffton, the local chapter of a men’s workout group based on fitness, fellowship and faith, donated a check this week for $21,000 to the Backpack Buddies program. It marks the single largest donation the group has received. A large amount of the funds was raised during a 206-mile relay from Columbia to Charleston in March.

According to Backpack Buddies, more than 600 children are served each month during the school year in six elementary schools, three middle schools and two high schools in Bluffton and one elementary school, one middle school and 12 charter schools in Hardeeville.

The donation will allow the Backpack Buddies program to provide weekly food bags to 120 children for the entire 2017-18 school year as well as make the program available to more students identified as being in need by school social workers.

For more information on Backpack Buddies and how to support the program, call 843-505-0636. For more information on F3, visit F3Nation.com.

This story was originally published May 11, 2017 at 9:28 AM with the headline "Hundreds of local students go home to a house without food. These Bluffton runners raised $21,000 to change that."