Novant Health partnered with the Forsyth Backpack Program to pack around 16,000 meals for children in need Friday to address food insecurity throughout Forsyth County. “We recognize the need is there,” said Novant Health community engagement manager Katherine Caster. “And we want to be there to help.”For the past four years, Novant Health has been partnering with the Forsyth Backpack Program to address food insecurity throughout Forsyth County.One in every five children in Winston-Salem experiences food insecurity.”The past three years, we’ve seen a lot of children join the program,” said Forsyth Backpack Program operations director David Ajamy. “We’ve nearly doubled, in the past two years, the amount of children we serve on a weekly basis.”The Forsyth Backpack Program feeds around 750 children every week with its weekend backpack food, which goes to 12 schools across Forsyth County.”We recognize, when we screen our patients, that some of them are also food insecure,” Caster said. “And because health care is a mission for us, community is a big passion for Novant Health team members.””Obviously, it goes a long way — but there’s still an exponential need out there — regardless of the children being fed from these bags,” Ajamy said. “There are other children going hungry, or there are days they have nothing to eat.”Around 100 volunteers from Novant Health took part in packing the 16,000 meals Friday.”It is the most heartwarming thing I could ever express,” Caster said. “These are nurses and frontline health care workers who give so much time to help our community already, and they’re giving that much more time to serve a greater cause — and I’m so proud of how committed our team members are to the community.”The food packed Friday will be available for kids when they’re not in school during Thanksgiving and Christmas break, as well as on the weekends.