Nearly 100% of children living on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation qualify for the free federal meals program. This means that while in school students have access to breakfast and lunch regardless of cost.
But what about the weekends?
With an annual median income of just over $18,000, Cheyenne River families are often forced to choose one essential item over another. This means that sometimes there simply isn’t enough left over to provide a nutritious weekend meal.
And this isn’t just an issue in Cheyenne River. Menominee Indian School District Superintendent Wendell Waukau, in Keshana Wisconsin, put it this way: “Our school district suffers from a high rate of poverty. As a result, children come to school having not eaten over the weekend.”
This school year, Running Strong for American Indian Youth® will work to ensure that hundreds of students at the Keshena Primary School on the Menominee Indian Reservation in Keshena, Wisconsin, the Wakpala School on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Reservation, and the Takini School on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in South Dakota and their family members do not go hungry over the weekends.
Through our Smart Sacks program, at the end of each week, we provide hundreds of students with bags filled with nonperishable food items, enough to feed a family of four for the weekend. This way, students do not arrive at school Monday morning hungry because they have not had a full meal since their school lunch on Friday. For this academic year, we are planning to distribute over 25,000 Smart Sacks at the three reservation schools.
Last school year, the Wakpala School on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Reservation in South Dakota distributed 5,068 Smart Sacks containing hot and cold cereals and oatmeal, soups, vegetables, beef, chicken, ham, pizza, water and more, reported Samantha Yellow Fat, a 2015 Running Strong Dreamstarter grant recipient, who is now a social worker at the school.
“The meat (beef, chicken, ham) bundles were greatly appreciated. Families had more access to food pantry during school and afterschool events,” she reported.
