Lagging national contributions have so crippled Running Strong for Native American Youth, that the nonprofit organization will close its Rapid City distribution warehouse June 30.

Running Strong, represented by Lakota Olympic gold medal winner Billy Mills, has served South Dakota's reservations since 1986. The group will try to carry on, moving its food pantry operations to the Cheyenne River and Pine Ridge reservations.

Lauren Finkelstein, executive director of Running Strong in Washington, D.C., said Monday that two people at the warehouse have lost their jobs, leaving Anthony Hanson to load the food truck and make the deliveries to three or four communities on the two reservations each month.

Problems for the Rapid City-based warehouse operation began when shipping costs peaked this summer at $4-a-gallon fuel. It might have recovered from that blow, but thousands of recent layoffs nationwide have seen large drops in Running Strong's contributions.

"They've been hit by the financial crisis; and we're not an exception to it," she said.

"A lot of people were afraid. They worried about their families or unexpected medical bills." she said.

The majority of its donors have been ordinary people who donate what they can afford.

"We have thousands of caring Americans nationwide who donate $20 and $30. These little donors combine together their money so that we're able to leverage it to buy in bulk and pay better prices for more food," she said.

The donations also helped pay workers to load the group's truck and take its products to Eagle Butte on the Cheyenne River reservation or out to Pine Ridge reservation.

Since July 1, 2008, the organization has donated nearly 400,000 pounds of food to families across Pine Ridge and Cheyenne reservations.

"It's a big operation. Distributing food is a lot of miles on the road," Finkelstein said.

Since 2000, Running Strong has distributed $19 million in food, shoes, school supplies, hygiene kits, blankets, coats and Christmas toys in South Dakota. It also has supplemented needy families on the reservation with emergency heating funds.

Between now and June 30, Finkelstein and her staff will search for a partner to help set up a distribution point on Pine Ridge.

"We have an established network set up," she said.

Until June, she will be restructuring the organization and making more cuts as needed.

"It's a decision no one wants to make because we always want to do more. We can't address all of the needs, but we can work as effectively as we can," Finkelstein said.

Contact Jomay Steen at 394-8418 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .