On May 4, 2025, the Culver City Council PTA, Culver City Rotary Club, and the Wende Museum hosted a garden tea party fundraiser to benefit the Backpacks for Kids Program. Guests enjoyed a variety of teas and lemonade, finger sandwiches, scones and pastries in the Wende’s beautiful garden. It was attended by School Board members Lindsay Carlson, Brian Guerrero and Stephanie Loredo, as well as Culver City Vice Mayor Freddy Puza. Thank you to all who attended, donated and volunteered.
The primary organizer of Sunday’s event was longtime, Backpacks for Kids program chair, Kathy Vigil. Kathy joined the Backpacks family in 2017 as “pantry manager.” She has since served hundreds of families every week by shopping, stocking, and packing food for Culver City students, as well as organizing several seasonal donation events such as the Halloween costume drives and winter coat drives. Kathy has spearheaded all of these events while building community partnerships with local organizations who support and fundraise for the program such as the Exchange Club, Rotary Club and the Screenland 5K. Kathy will be retiring as the Backpacks chair this year, but everyone in the Culver City Backpacks for Kids program is so grateful for her years of service to the program and to Culver City students.
A partnership of the Culver City Council PTA and the Culver City Education Foundation, the Culver City Backpacks for Kids program is a weekly program that supports CCUSD students facing food insecurity by providing nutritious, child-friendly, easy-to-prepare foods. It relies entirely on community donations, grants, and volunteers.
To learn more or to donate, please visit/www.ccbackpacksforkids.com/
Culver Pride
