About Heartland Kids Against Hunger

John Popish is the current Executive Director of Heartland Kids Against Hunger. Several chapters in his life led him to this current position, and each one is worthy of mention. In 1992, his military command was positioned off the coast of Somalia, providing humanitarian aid via food rations to a suffering population. There was a severe drought occurring in the land and political unrest in the country's capital, Mogadishu. 1992 was the same period as the movie Blackhawk Down would portray a few years later. The aircraft carrier he was stationed on delivered human resources and much-needed food supplies until circumstances became so severe that ground forces had to withdraw. However, the death toll from the lack of food was estimated to be over 250,000 before the U.S intervened. This episode in John's life brought his attention to a worldwide crisis that a young man sheltered in the heartland of America would have otherwise never seen. John's Full Story

Jeff Herdzina serves as the President of ExitBig, a Mergers and Acquisitions firm that provides businesses across the Midwest with exceptional buy-side and sell-side experiences. Jeff founded ExitBig after exiting his first business, where he served as the President of US Data for ten years. He is passionate about leading other entrepreneurs with similar core values through these emotional transactions and helping them find their purpose. 

Jeff's Full Story

Chad Sievers is the Chief Visionary Officer and VP of Sales for Raridon and Associates. Raridon is Johnson and Johnson DePuy Synthes Orthopedics’ Exclusive Sales Agency in the NE/IA/KS/MO/S. IL region. Chad grew up in the Omaha area, attended UNL, majoring in business and became a first-team Academic All American as a member of the Nebraska Cornhusker Football program. Following his graduation from UNL, Chad started his career with Raridon and has held various roles within the company over the last 17 years, culminating by becoming owner/operator alongside his business partner in 2016. Read More About Chad Sievers.

Jason Tonjes CPA, CFE  is passionate about helping others succeed and experiencing God’s Best for their lives. He has twenty plus years of field expertise as a Small Business Consultant, advises best practices for several Federal government agencies, and completes his career with experience as a Managing Partner at Bland & Associates, P.C. Jason has been married to his wife Roberta for 17 years and they have three children, one son, and two daughters. He and Roberta love spending time with their family and friends and spend much of their free time traveling to many of the wonderful places in this world. Read More About Jason.

Stephanie O'Neil is the Owner, Web Designer and Content Creator of Timber and Bloom IT Services. Her passion for creativity, web design, and lending a helping hand led her to follow the call to action to volunteer for Heartland Kids Against Hunger, attending meal-packing events to create social media content alongside her husband. Eventually, she was asked to rebuild and manage Heartland KAH’s website.

Attending meal-packing events and seeing first-hand how the experience positively affects the volunteers and learning how the meals impact the lives of those in need, Stephanie developed a passion for the mission of “serving the least of God’s people,” she accepted the offer to join the Board of Directors in hopes of helping to grow Heartland KAH’s mission to touch as many lives as possible. Read more about Stephanie O'Neil.

James O'Neil is an IT leader in the Omaha Metro area. With more than 18 years in the field, James has experience and expertise in all areas ranging from engineering and sales to holding executive positions. His experience in building meaningful relationships and partnerships and always wanting to help in any aspect that he can, made it easy for James to jump right into volunteering at events.

After spending more than a year getting to know and volunteering for Heartland Kids Against Hunger's mission, James was elected on to the Board of Directors. James has not only volunteered his time in helping to run meal packing events, but he launched the nonprofit into the online world. He streamlined and simplified the invoicing and donation system to be able to accept digital donations. he has already been invaluable in giving and executing ideas to assist in the current and continued growth and success of Heartland Kids Against Hunger. Read More About James O'Neil