Credit Union Chapter Donates $2,000 to Feeding South Dakota

The Old West Chapter of Rapid City, SD recently donated $2,000 to the Feeding South Dakota BackPack Program. Every week, over 5,000 packages of food are distributed through FSD BackPack Program to school children across South Dakota. These food packages provide nutritious, easy-to-prepare foods to children in need to help bridge the hunger gap that exists when school lunches are not available.   Did you know?

• Over 120,000 individuals in South Dakota live at or below the poverty line. SD has the three poorest countries in the United States, and 4 of the top 10 in the US.
• Feeding South Dakota (FSD) provides emergency food assistance for an estimated 100,000 people every year.The need is real. People across this state come to Feeding South Dakota looking for help. Thousands of real human beings hoping to fill their stomachs and put an end to their hunger. As a hunger relief organization, our goal is to fight hunger and help these 100,000+ individuals. With your help, we will succeedOver 2,700 supplemental food boxes are distributed to low-income seniors in Central and Eastern South Dakota each month.
• The Rapid City Food Pantry alone provides emergency food and personal care items to�over 43,600 individuals in need. Additionally, the Sioux Falls Food Pantry serves over 37,500 individuals each year.
• Almost half of the individuals Feeding South Dakota serves are children and infants.
• No child should ever go hungry. But the sad truth is that almost half of the food pantrys recipients are hungry children. With your donations, you can help us change this. Whether you provide a BackPack Program donation or simply give a general donation to Feeding South Dakota, YOU can make a difference. You can put food in a childs empty stomach. You can put hope in a childs heart.
• The Pantries in Sioux Falls and Rapid City directly supply nearly 1,250,000 meals to meet emergency requests for food assistance.
  • 1765 backpacks are provided each week with an average cost of $4 per week per student. The program can provide 4 meals for every $1 donated.

Now, the Feeding SD BackPack program is in line for a Walmart Foundation grant, and you can help by voting for the program at the Walmart Facebook page. Help Feeding South Dakota click their way to a grant in the "Fighting Hunger Together" initiative - a national campaign where money is awarded to programs that get the most votes for their innovative and effective programs that help alleviate child hunger. The public will decide what organization will receive the grants through a voting campaign on the Walmart Facebook page that includes more than 300 different hunger relief organizations from across the country.� Grants will be awarded to the 40 food banks with the most votes. �Feeding South Dakota would use the funding to help support the BackPack program. �Funding would provide 310 children with a weekend food package for an entire school year. You can vote for the FSD BackPack Program once a day through April 30th. �At the conclusion of the voting, top vote getters will split $3 million in funding from Walmart. Go to www.facebook.com/walmart and cast your vote today!� Look for this icon.