United Way resuming free snack program for local children across the Valley

WASILLA — United Way of Mat-Su is resuming their new snack program, Meals for Mat-Su Littles this fall, offering free food items to local families in need across the Valley.

According to United Way of Mat-Su outreach coordinator, Michele Harmeling, United Way works with over a dozen local childcare centers that distribute snack sacks to children at their facilities. She said they moved their sorting center from the Mat-Su Salvation Army corps office to the Alaska State Fairgrounds as the program continues to grow with the ever-rising need that’s heightened by the pandemic.

“We know that our early childhood community is really struggling… They’re definitely frontline workers. Families rely really heavily on these centers and their staff. These centers and their staff would like to help families as much as they can, so they were just really grateful to send the kids home with extra families,” Harmeling said.

She said that volunteers assemble bags with various food items and deliver them to participating sites. She said they’re gearing up to distribute thousands of meals throughout the fall and winter months, and they’re going to need all the help they can get.

“We definitely going to need some volunteers for that,” Harmeling said.

The Mat-Su Littles program started last year with the financial support of the Mat-Su Health Foundation. She said they distributed over 5,000 individual snack sacks by May of 2021.

“It was amazing,” Harmeling said.” I feel really good about it. People really connected with this program.”

Harmeling said they intend to keep this program going strong for the long haul, complementing their other services building a stronger community by supporting local families across various capacities.

“We’d like to cont doing this year in and year out,” Harmeling said.

Harmeling noted that they’re currently in need of plastic totes for delivering snacks. She said that local childcare centers or anyone in the community who has extra totes can reach out to donate them to the program.

Local childcare centers that would like to participate in the program can find out more by emailing give@untiedwaymatsu.org.

To sign up as a volunteer, visit unitedwaymatsu.org/volunteer. For more information, call 907-745-5822 or visit unitedwaymatsu.org.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com