Editor’s Note: This story is part of our series “Helping Hands”, which aims to spotlight Johnson Countians doing good in the background of their community. If you have an idea for someone to spotlight in a future “Helping Hands” story, email us at stories@johnsoncountypost.com.
On Johnson County’s coldest night so far in 2025, Amanda and Matt Jahnke and their friends and family were hard at work packaging food for kids to take home over the weekend.
It’s winters like this year’s that can make what their Johnson County-based nonprofit does feel especially important. Even if snow starts falling, Amanda Jahnke said, she and her volunteers do what they can to ensure that kids in food-insecure homes will have two days’ worth of food by the end of the week.
“We’ve had calls from superintendents (in the winter) that are like, ‘If you will deliver food, we will have school because it’s that important to our kids,” she said. “For a lot of kids whose parents are working and they’re home by themselves, they’re going to get the majority of their food from school.”
Through local school and community partnerships, their Merriam-based nonprofit, Hands to Hearts, aims to make sure children and families in food-insecure homes have what they need.
Since Hands to Hearts got off the ground in 2009, what began with a Johnson County family and their friends has grown to an organization with hundreds of volunteers.
The Jahnke family started Hands to Hearts roughly 15 years ago
Amanda and Matt, sister and brother, currently serve as the president and vice president of Hands to Hearts.
Their parents, Marilyn and Bill Jahnke, started Hands to Hearts with their friends in 2009.
At the time, Amanda said, they’d just returned from a trip to South Africa, during which they helped build a schoolhouse. They felt inspired to start a more localized effort to help kids in need back home.
“When they got back to the United States, they thought, ‘There are kids here in Kansas City that need help. What can we do to help them?’” Amanda said.
Thus began Hands to Hearts’ work packaging and delivering “BackSnacks” — a cluster of nutritious and free food items for kids to take home from school over the weekend.
During their first few weeks partnering with schools in Kansas City, Kansas, the Jahnkes gathered supplies themselves, filling bags with groceries from Hy-Vee or Walmart.
Then Hands to Hearts partnered with Kansas City, Missouri, nonprofit Harvesters to join their official weekly BackSnack program. The group works with school staff to identify children in need, and students receive their weekly deliveries at school.
Today, Hands to Hearts partners with Harvesters to provide BackSnacks for roughly 1,000 kids in the metro area. Hands to Hearts’ primary partner is Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools, but the group also works with some schools within the Shawnee Mission and Olathe school districts.
Hands to Hearts isn’t just about hunger
During Hands to Hearts’ first year in 2009, a school nurse at a partnering school in Kansas City, Kansas, reached out to the Jahnkes about a student who had come to school in wet clothes after attempting to wash them the night before.
“It was a particularly cold winter, and she said that this child had shown up to school with his clothes soaking wet,” Amanda said. “He only had that one pair of clothes — He washed them every night, and had set them out on the radiator to dry, but they just didn’t dry the night before.”
When the nurse asked if Hands to Hearts had any clothes to spare, Jahnke said, it became apparent that some families had needs for more than food.
So they put out a call for donations, and the community delivered. Today, Hands to Hearts collects all types of winter clothing and accessories: winter coats, hats, gloves, even Chapstick for kids who walk to school in cold temperatures.
A couple of years later, a Hands to Hearts board member also had the idea to expand their scope to address another community issue: the need to read.
Hands to Hearts began collecting new and gently used books for students, garnering roughly 3,000 donations in the book program’s first year.
Today, the Hands to Hearts warehouse in Merriam is stacked with a variety of books for elementary and middle school students. The group brings book carts to schools for kids to pick out and take home — a free “book fair” of sorts.
Hands to Hearts also collects hygiene items, in addition to food, clothing and books.
“How we grow is based on where the need is,” Matt Jahnke said. “We try to help out in any area we can, even if it’s not food, books or clothing. If we see the need and we can do it, then we should.”
Hands to Hearts has grown a lot in 15 years
Though Hands to Hearts started with the Jahnke family and their friends, Amanda said the group’s steady stream of volunteers have played a big role in keeping Hands to Hearts afloat over the years.
“I think in 15 years, we’ve had upwards of 2,000 volunteers come and help us out along the way,” Amanda said. “I feel like we’re really lucky. Any time we need volunteers, we just put out a post and people show up.”
People looking to volunteer with Hands to Hearts can generally do so by watching social media for opportunities. The Jahnkes said the Merriam warehouse at 9025 W. 51st Terrace also accepts in-person donations — of which there have been plenty.
“Right now, I look around at what we’ve got, and this is just massive compared to what they started off with,” Matt said. “We’ve got a lot of stuff coming in and going out, and that’s exactly how it should be. I’m definitely proud of all the work put into it.”
When Amanda and Matt look around at their Merriam warehouse, full of donated clothes and books and food, they said that they see, in part, a lot of work to be done.
But they also see a true visual of just how much their neighbors have stepped in to help them fulfill their mission. After all, Amanda said, her parents couldn’t have grown Hands to Hearts beyond their living room without the community pitching in.
“I don’t think that when they started it, they thought that it would ever be this,” Amanda said. “(My parents) could have never just done this on their own. It’s what the community of Kansas City has done. It just so happened that my parents and their friends saw this need.”
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