The Wellsville-Middletown R-I Buddy Pack program received an enormous donation on Dec. 8 that would help the organization meet the nutritional needs of impoverished, school-age students over the weekend during the 2025-26 school year.

The Buddy Pack program received $5,000 from the WoodmenLife Outreach Foundation that would help purchase food for over 800 Buddy Packs at a cost of $6 during the school year.

Buddy Pack committee members Clinetta Weinrich and Julie Day received the check from WoodmenLife area representative Dwayne Goss. 

“He (Goss) called me and said his company has some money that they wanted to donate to 501c3,” Weinrich said. “He asked, ‘Do you have that?’ I said, ‘Yes, we do.’ At first, it was going to be $2,500. All of the sudden, it was $5,000.”

Weinrich started the Buddy Pack program in 2012 while she was working as a kindergarten teacher at W-M. She is now a member of the W-M School Board.

In the Buddy Pack program, buddy packs are filled by local volunteers and placed in the child’s backpack on Friday. The program’s mission is to improve the student’s diet, physical health and academic success in school. Recently, the program did 22 Thanksgiving boxes.

Buddy packs are provided for 50 students each week, equating to a total of 1,800 buddy packs for this school year.

WoodmenLife is based in Omaha, Neb., but Goss works as the company’s representative out of Montgomery City. Goss said the company supports children, families and first responders such as firefighters and police.

“WoodmanLife is 130 years old,” Goss said. “They’re a non-profit organization that provides life insurance for entire families. They do 401K rollovers. We are involved in the communities.”