HURON — Jen Bragg, executive director of the United Way Heartland Region, spoke at the Beadle County Democratic forum about her work with the Heartland Region Backpack Program.

The Backpack Program began in 2008, serving 60 children in one school in Huron. It now helps feed 651 children enrolled in nine area schools. The schools are the three elementary schools in Huron, Huron Head Start, McKinley Early Learning Center, Holy Trinity Catholic School, and Huron High School, as well as Iroquois and Wolsey-Wessington Public Schools.

The program provides supplemental food for the weekends when students don’t have access to school meals.

“Funded entirely by grants and donations and facilitated by the United Way Heartland Region, this program is a wonderful testament to the giving power of our community and the desire of so many to make a better life for children in our region,” said Bragg.

Bragg brought a sample bag of food that is dispersed on Fridays.

It includes one breakfast item such as a granola bar or individual -size box of cereal; one package of ramen noodles; one main meal component such as soup, pasta cups or tuna fish; one fruit, this week was an applesauce cup; and one treat, like Jell-O or pudding.

“We try to have items kids can prepare themselves and require nothing more than water,” Bragg said. “We also try to include fresh fruit whenever we can, but that is expensive.”

She said it costs about $150 per child per year to provide this extra food.

“As you can see it is not a lot of food and will not provide for every meal,” she pointed out. “But it does give supplemental food for kids who need it.”

Bragg explained that there is an application the parent or guardian fills out and signs, but no one outside of the school sees it. The administration team tells Bragg how many bags they need. Bragg and her volunteers deliver the bags to each school office, and they are distributed by the staff.

“During Covid when all children received free meals, our numbers dropped in half,” Bragg said. “Families said they didn’t need the extra help. But that has changed, now. Many of the families we serve are on that bubble, where they earn too much to qualify for programs, but struggle to pay for food.”

She said working with the many businesses, church groups, and other organizations that volunteer has made it easy to fill the bags each week. She is thankful for all the donations of food as well as money that she has received. Even the Girl Scouts donated some cookies.

“We are all helping families right here in our community who need a helping hand,” she said.

“And that is so rewarding.”