(MURFREESBORO) Thanks to the generosity of three agricultually oriented businesses, a $2,700 check was presented to the Rutherford County Atlas School Backpack Program. For the second year, the Tennessee Farm Bureau, Tennessee Farmers Cooperative, and Farm Credit Mid-America/Rural 1st made this gift. 

The Rutherford County ATLAS School Backpack Program provides meals for hungry students in county.

The gift was raised through Shooting Hunger sporting clays shoots. Since 2015, Shooting Hunger events have provided more than two million meals to hungry Tennessee children.

Currently there are approximately over 1,500 children in Rutherford County that are helped through the ATLAS Program.

According to the Rutherford County Schools' Education Foundation, The Backpack Program serves approximately 900 food insecure students. Students are supplied with food items to bridge the weekend gap during the school year.

Coordinators in area schools tackle the logistics of helping to secure donations, pack bags, and ensure discreet distribution to students in need.

Research shows that food-insecure students score lower than food-secure peers on standardized testing and measures of child intelligence and are more likely to repeat a grade, need psychological services and struggle getting along with peers.

For more information visit www.shootinghunger.com and www.rcschools.net.