Following winter storm, Feeding South Dakota in dire need of volunteers
The winter storms that hit South Dakota last week set the organizations efforts back greatly, and now they need as much help as they can get over the next several weeks.
PIERRE, S.D. - Tens of thousands of people across the state rely on Feeding South Dakota. And now, they need your help.
The winter storms that paralyzed much of South Dakota last week have set Feeding South Dakota back greatly. Stacey Andernacht, Marketing and Communications Director for the organization, estimates that 3,300 families were effected by the storm, and unable to get their deliveries.
And many more are going to be effected by the extreme cold this week as well. It is likely that several deliveries across the state will have to be canceled due to extreme temperatures.
“We are continuing to look at rural communities that we serve, and monitor the road conditions and accessibility in an attempt to get to more communities and get food there,” Andernacht explained.
It is why they are pushing hard to get as many volunteers in the door as possible in the next several weeks, as they go into overdrive trying to make up for lost time and meals.
“We mostly need people packing boxes and preparing the food we get in,” explained Josh Hansen, Eastern Operations Director. “But we can even use volunteers for snow removal, office work that needs to be caught up on, and other tasks. But packing boxes and trying to get ahead, that is especially what we are looking for.”
They project that they need about 2,900 volunteer opportunities to be filled across the state before before the end of the year. 1,100 of those are needed out of the Pierre distribution center.
“In some of these situations, families have to go without food if we cannot get to them,” Hansen said. “It is one of those things that you don’t think about often, but in this day and age there are still people who have these problems. It is not just on the reservations, you see it everywhere and especially in rural communities. But especially on the reservations right now, they are struggling badly because of the storms.”
If you are interested in learning more about volunteering with Feeding South Dakota, click here.
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