Backpacks, Books and Smiles for Kids

The main goal of the United Way is to strengthen families within our communities. It is our intent to create long lasting community change by addressing the underlying causes of problems that prevent progress in these areas. To increase the stability of our families beyond the funding services we provide we offer several additional program services to families in our area that are United Way driven and focus specifically on youth.

Buddy Backpack Program: New this year** As poverty levels continue to rise throughout the Iron Range, teachers and school nurses have shared many stories of children returning to school on Mondays after a weekend without enough to eat. Many of these children complain of stomach cramps, headaches and dizziness. Some have a decreased attention span or lack enthusiasm to learn because they are concentrating on their hunger more than learning. During the week, these children rely on the free and reduced lunch program to get them by.

The United Way of NE MN has implemented the "Buddy Backpack Program" in schools across the Iron Range to help alleviate this issue. Children most at risk receive a backpack filled with nutritious, child friendly, non-perishable food each Friday they head home from school. The program provides crucial nutrition that allows children to be nourished and ready to learn after a weekend break.

Imagination Library: A school readiness program sponsored by United Way since 2008 that delivers monthly age appropriate books to children birth to age five for FREE! There are no income guidelines to this program. It is United Way's intent to encourage all parents to read to their children and ready them for kindergarten. Currently, over 3,000 children across the Iron Range are benefiting from this program

Smiles Across MN: A preventative dental care program that provides teeth cleaning, fluoride treatments, sealants, oral health, and nutritional education to children in a school based setting with a focus on children who are underinsured or uninsured. The service is provided by a mobile dental unit that brings the equipment on site with a local hygienist and assistant. Because the majority of these children have never seen a dentist before, the hygienist's were finding many had cavities, which didn't allow them to put sealants on their teeth. We are fortune enough to have a volunteer dentist from the Twin Cities who comes up to provide restorative care on kids' teeth that need it. Since the inception of this program two years ago, over 1,200 children have received dental care in school.