Photo courtesy of Marshall Food4Kids Groups of community members, including this group of Southwest Minnesota State University students, help pack bags of healthy snacks that children in Marshall Public Schools can take home. The Food4Kids program has seen the number of students receiving snack bags grow this year.

MARSHALL — A nonprofit that helps hungry children in Marshall schools has seen the number of students it serves go up about 20% this school year, Marshall Food4Kids volunteers said.

“I think it was a sign of the economy,” Food4Kids volunteer Jana Reilly said this week. While volunteers don’t know the individual situations of the kids and families they help, the cost of food has been going up, she said.

Each week, Food4Kids helps distribute bags of healthy snacks to more than 800 children in kindergarten through sixth grade. But food costs pose a challenge to both area families and the Food4Kids program.

Marshall Food4Kids works together with teachers at Marshall Public Schools to distribute snacks for children to take home over the weekend. The bags, which are placed inside students’ backpacks, include kid-friendly and healthy foods like fruit, granola bars and juice boxes.

“Historically, we have done kindergarten through eighth grade,” Reilly said.

However, this year the program only includes grades kindergarten through sixth grade, in spite of increased demand.

Currently, Food4Kids packs 865 snack bags a week for Marshall students, Reilly said. For most of the 2023-24 school year, the count ranged between about 750 to 780 bags a week — and that included kids in grades seven and eight. This year, an estimated 85 to 100 students in grades seventh and eighth are not being served due to lack of funding, Reilly said.

At the same time, Reilly said, Food4Kids had to reduce the number of food items packed in each bag to help defray costs.

“The biggest cost is the food itself,” Reilly said. “Especially since COVID, prices went up.”

After food prices rose, serving sizes of packaged foods also started getting smaller. For example, juice boxes shrank from 8 ounces down to 6, and then down to 4.6 ounces, she said.

Food4Kids’ current cost per snack bag averages around $2.90, Reilly said. Weekly costs average around $2,500. Costs to serve grades K-6 for the remaining 32 weeks in this school year would come to about $80,200, she said.

Besides rising food costs, Food4Kids has also been affected by changes in grant funding for the program, Reilly said. Board members are continuing to look for and apply for grant opportunities.

“We’re constantly on the lookout,” she said.

They also help organize fundraisers like an annual spaghetti dinner at Living Word Lutheran Church, and an Applebees pancake breakfast.

Although the Food4Kids program faces cost challenges, Reilly said community members have consistently stepped up to help, either through monetary contributions or volunteer hours.

Volunteers help pack all the snack bags that are distributed. On average, around 67 volunteers a month help keep the program running, Reilly said.

Some of the volunteers have included groups from schools, Southwest Minnesota State University, and local church groups. Marshall Food4Kids has had a great level of community support, she said.