Hockey Team Helps Tame Hunger For Needy Families At Dmps - Des Moines Public Schools

Press release from the Des Moines Public Schools:

September 30, 2020

What, you must’ve asked yourself at some point, do a professional ice hockey team and a large urban school district have in common?

More than you might think.

Consider the Iowa Wild and Des Moines Public Schools, teammates on many levels.

Both had their 2019-20 and 20-21 “seasons” derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Last March the Wild were putting the finishing touches on their best season and eyeing the American Hockey League playoffs when the league called an indefinite timeout that’s still in effect. Pretty much the same goes for DMPS.

While the district crafts a plan to get its 33,000+ students safely back inside their brick and mortar schools later this fall, the AHL is tentatively hoping to drop the puck on the 20-21 campaign in December, two months behind schedule.

In the meantime, the two organizations are teaming up to defeat hunger in the DMPS community, a goal they share.

The object of hockey is to “put the biscuit in the basket,” i.e., shoot the puck into the opponent’s net. The Wild donated $10,000 toward their annual Tame the Hunger event, an effort coordinated by The Outreach Program in conjunction with other local community sponsors Affinity Credit Union, Amerigroup, BMW of Des Moines, Capital Ortho, MercyOne, NCMIC, The James Law Firm and Tito’s that put more than 29,000 biscuits into the empty baskets of underfed DMPS families.

Tuesday morning, all of the teammates supplied the physical AND fiscal muscle required to deliver almost 700 “pantry packs” assembled by The Outreach Program to district facilities at the Kurtz Opportunity Center. Each one contains enough foodstuffs for 42 family meals.

Jenn Stalder is the SUCCESS Supervisor for DMPS and she said that the family outreach branch of district services welcomes the outside help.

“The already high level of food insecurity in our district has only gotten worse since the pandemic,” said Stalder. “Even more families are falling through cracks due to job loss and we are so grateful for this assistance. Our case managers at the 48 schools SUCCESS serves will identify the families with the greatest need and we’ll add these ‘pantry packs’ to care packages we’re putting together that also include necessary items like hygiene products.”

Crash was there Tuesday morning, the Wild mascot. Mascots are another thing hockey clubs and schools have in common, besides sidelined schedules and the goal of putting biscuits into baskets. Despite many previous visits to local schools, Crash looked a little out of his element at Kurtz. The sooner he’s back on skates, filling the stands with fans, and kids are back at school, filling their tummies there, the better. Until then, thanks to the team that’s taming hunger!

This press release was produced by the Des Moines Public Schools. The views expressed here are the author’s own.