T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY - Members of the BCLUW High School girls track and field team are shown working to sort cheese powder packets at The Outreach Program in Union on Friday afternoon.

UNION — The early days of spring in Iowa are notorious for unpredictable weather, which often impacts activity schedules at area school districts. Fortunately for the BCLUW girls track and field team, they have found another meaningful way to spend their days when meets and practices are canceled or postponed.

Last week, members of the team coached by Tristan Switzer headed over from the high school in Conrad to Union and the headquarters of The Outreach Program, a nonprofit established in 2004 to address food insecurity and to empower people and communities, to assist in meal packing operations. Specifically, they’ve been sorting through cheese powder packets to determine which ones can be used.

Matt Hamilton, the chief development officer at The Outreach Program, explained how it all came together on Friday afternoon.

“We had an error with some product, and with the track team, it just kind of worked out well that they’re in a transition period where it’s too cold for all of their practices or too rainy or too something or other,” he said. “So it wound up being a great time for them to give back to the community by coming over, helping us sort out good and bad product, acceptable and not acceptable, and then those meals will get packaged in the future and go to a food bank.”

The Outreach Program works to address food insecurity both locally and around the world. Hamilton mentioned the catastrophic recent earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand as well as the ongoing war in Ukraine, but he also noted that even school districts in Marshall County have surprisingly high percentages of students not getting enough food and taking meals home on the weekends.

On Thursday, they distributed food to the Iowa State University Food Bank that will end up at food banks in Marshall and surrounding counties.

Matt Hamilton, left, and Heather Fikes, right, of The Outreach Program are pictured.

“These students, by giving up their time this afternoon, this food will now be able to be used in additional meals that can be provided here locally, and we’ll in turn give a donation to BCLUW that they can use for whatever – track stuff, drama stuff, etc,” he said.

Abby Kemp, who is also a member of the cross country team and walks the nursing home in Conrad almost every week, said it’s normal for the team to give back to the community.

“We love the support that we get from our community during track meets and basketball games, so we really feel like it’s a responsibility to give back to that because we do get so much support,” she said.

Izzy Morris, a fellow member of the squad, described it as a team building exercise.

“I think it’s a great time for us to bond and just get to know each other more and also to learn how to work better as a team,” she said.

With the powder boxes weighing about 30 pounds apiece, they are still getting some physical exercise in filling them up and hauling them to their eventual destinations.

“We were hearing some cheering (last) Tuesday when the boxes got filled,” Hamilton said.

And even in districts as small as BCLUW, there are still classmates and friends who could benefit from the work of The Outreach Program and these generous student-athletes.

“It’s something that is really known in our community, so every chance we get, we provide food drives at our school. We know it’s a prevalent issue, so we do what we can,” Kemp said.

Depending on the weather, members of the team may be heading back to Union for more meal packing assistance yet this week. To learn more about The Outreach Program, visit https://outreachprogram.org/.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.