MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WMBF) – It’s been a month since students returned to the classroom, and for many, heading back to school can create an unsettling feeling of not knowing when their next meal is, or if they have enough supplies to last all year.
Those needs are where the nonprofit organization Help 4 Kids comes in. They are celebrating 30 years of keeping kids in school and, most importantly, making sure kids don’t go hungry.
The founder of Help4Kids, Barb Mains, shared her story and the mission behind the 100% volunteer organization.
“It’s not hard work; it’s easy when you’re doing what we are doing. It’s easy because anything you do for a kid is never wasted,” Mains said.
It’s a 24/7 year-round organization.
Dan Burns, one of many volunteers, said as he was packing up a van, “those white bags – the snack packs – those are actually the ones that are sent home from Backpack Buddies from the schools every weekend during the school year.”
Volunteers fill 2,600 bags every week and feed kids from 41 different Horry County schools.
“We get what we need. We get enough stuff to do what we need – food, to pay the rent, to buy the gas for the vans. Everything will always go to the poor because we will never ever do it wrong. We’re going to do the right thing. I said that and we have, and that’s the reason we are so successful,” Mains said.
It all began back in 1989 after Hurricane Hugo. Mains and two other women set out to do a little volunteer work around the Loris, Green Sea and Nichols areas.
“We drove into a cul-de-sac that was so bad it had Port-O-Johns in the middle. No houses really, just old trailers and shacks, and we looked around and saw the kids and I remember thinking this is like a third-world country, and it’s this close to where I live,” Mains said.
She saw a need she wanted to fulfill.
“Some of them had dirt floors. None of them had clothes or shoes. When school goes back, that’s my big thing. When the kids go back to school, they get a filled book bag and a pair of new shoes, so they wouldn’t go back to school without a book bag or shoes or clothes. They would just go back,” Mains said.
Help4Kids’ Backback Buddies was born shortly after Mains’ experience. Without a plan in place, she said she had a passion to serve and a loving heart that’s helped change hundreds of children’s lives for decades.
“They might not thank you tomorrow, they might not thank you next week, but they will remember you for the rest of their life because you fed them when they were hungry,” Mains said.
Every month, Help4Kids hosts food drives at three Walmart locations and Lowe’s Foods customers donate while they shop that can help provide one weeks’ worth of food for kids.
“Once you’ve done it for a while, you have no needs, no needs. Why would I want a $100 dress when I could buy $100 worth of rice and beans? I always compare it to rice and beans, I don’t know why I do that,” Mains said laughing.
Her call to others is choose to be selfless.
“Go out and find children where they are, look in their face, and tell them you won’t help them because you’re selfish. You can’t do it. Even the hardest heart person couldn’t do it. You just look in them little eyes,” Mains said.
There are multiple ways people can help be a part of serving children in need. Help 4 Kids has a facility on Forestbrook Road to drop off donations or find more information about sponsoring a child.
Originally published with WMBF News.
