CAMBRIDGE -- A Cambridge woman has launched a new program to make sure kids are fed in the new school year.

Project Brown Bag collects and distributes bags with snacks for kids as they head back to the classroom.

"The program is going to directly help kids during back-to-school season," founder Brooke Gamble said.

Gamble launched the community service initiative after what she saw in classrooms during her first year in teachers' college.

"They didn't have proper snacks, the proper lunch, breakfast to start the day right and that was really affecting their learning," Gamble said.

That motivated her to apply for the Rising Youth Grant. Gamble was awarded $750 to run the program. She's delivering paper bags and asking the community to fill them with non-perishable snacks for kids.

"Then we have a collection day where we go around the community and pick them up and deliver them to the Cambridge Self-Help Food Bank," Gamble explained.

The food bank said demand remains high.

"Of 3,000 people who accessed in July, 20 per cent are kids under the age of 12," said Krista Cressman, executive director of the Cambridge Self-Help Food Bank.

Cressman said there could be a further increase in demand next month with the end of CERB. She said it's important for people to donate if they can.

"Yogurt tubes, cheese strings, healthy crackers, fruits and vegetables," she said.

Gamble said her project is seeing success so far.

"We've already collected 107 bags from the community, we have a couple more coming this week and we've received over $600 in donations," Gamble said.

The next collection is scheduled for Aug. 22.

"Just so appreciative, especially during a pandemic when we don't have the donations coming in the way that we did," Cressman said.

People can also help by sponsoring a bag on the Project Brown Bag GoFundMe page.

"It's not just the big donations, sometimes it's the small ones that warm our hearts the most," Cressman said.

The project will run for three more weeks.