Hearing about students in the Arkansas River Valley who leave school Friday to spend the weekend in food-insecure homes pulls at the heartstrings of our Ozark, Arkansas, division.
Our team has been behind-the-scenes partnering with Ozark Public Schools to support a backpack program for more than five years.
Ozark team members rotate departments to fill 80 bags every week at their office. This service supports the entire school district as counselors identify students in need. Even during the height of the two-year COVID-19 pandemic, the team figured out creative ways to continue this much-needed service in a safe way.
“It would be very difficult to meet the needs of filling the bags without Black Hills Energy,” said Chad Haberer, human service worker at Ozark Public Schools. Haberer added the school has very limited staff, and the number of backpacks needed to support their students has grown over the years. He drops off the food supplies and picks up the filled backs from our Ozark office each week.
Tom McCormick, senior manager of gas operations for the Ozark division, said, “Ozark employees have been more than willing to lend support in reducing childhood hunger in our local school system by participating in the backpack program. Pam Fritsche had been instrumental in organizing this effort for the division.”
Thank you to the dedicated Ozark team for your continued service in meeting this community need!
We partner with our communities and customers, providing the kind of energy that fuels those areas and the lives of those we serve. Feel free to share the stories and photos. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn,Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest for more!
Positive Energy
-
High school students from eight communities learned about career options in Nebraska during Southwest Nebraska Career Day in Cambridge, Nebraska. During the Oct. 5 event, students had the chance to interact with area employees to learn about options available to them if they choose to call… -
Any event that brings people together in warm weather is bound to generate a lot of soda cans, water bottles and other recyclable materials that typically end up in the landfill. During the Cass County Fair in Weeping Water, Nebraska, last August, our service and operations team in Papillion,… -
Natural gas fires are rare, but they can happen. That’s why our Nebraska operations in the north and south regions recently hosted fire safety training in both Lincoln and O’Neill, Nebraska. The training provided firefighters an opportunity to practice techniques to effectively contain and… -
Our team members in Northwest Arkansas recently participated in the Hispanic Heritage Festival, an annual event hosted by the Fayetteville, Arkansas, Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with National Hispanic Heritage Month. Our damage prevention trailer was parked along the parade route and near…