For 14 years, thousands of local kids relied on a unique program to keep their tummies full with good food on the weekends throughout the school year.

Each Friday they picked up a backpack, or in more recent years, a bag, filled with nutritious food. That food was courtesy of a program called Backpack Buddies and it was vital for them because of their families’ economic situations.

They relied on school breakfasts and lunches during the week for nutritious meals. But the weekends were another story. On Saturdays and Sundays, they may not have gotten much to eat at all and what they did get may have been essentially junk food.

At its peak, the program provided 650 bags of food a week. Those bags were loaded by inmates at the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility, who also donated some money to the program.

But this school year, the hundreds of students who benefitted from Backpack Buddies face the prospect of some hungry weekends.

The program, which costs about $85,000 a year to operate, has shut down due to a lack of money.

Backpack Buddies was a noble venture started by Dr. Terry Moehnke, a former Fort Dodge City Council member. It was operated by the members of the Fort Dodge Noon Sertoma Club and the inmates at the local prison.

But the donations needed to keep the effort going “basically vaporized” in Moehnke’s words. Therefore, the club members voted to end Backpack Buddies.

Sertoma members and their inmate partners made a critical difference in the lives of thousands of children over the years. They should be proud of what they accomplished. We thank them for their compassion and dedication.

Backpack Buddies should not be allowed to end, however. There are still kids that need nutritious food, The need has not gone away.

We challenge local businesses and organizations to come together and find a way to continue the work started by Moehnke and the Sertoma members that was so ably carried out by the inmates.

We do not pretend that this will be easy. It will, however, impact the lives of hundreds of young people. For that reason alone, an effort must be made to keep something like Backpack Buddies going in our community.