NEW ALBANY — She may talk about soul food on her cooking TV show and in magazines, but Paula Deen said it was her soul that was fed Friday.

Deen came to S. Ellen Jones Elementary, in New Albany, to kick off the school’s Blessings in a Backpack program, which sends every child home each week with a backpack filled with food.

“I was putting food in their backpacks, but they have no no idea what they gave to me today,” Deen said. “Some souls have been fed here today. Mine being one of them.”

The school’s 270 students went through an assembly line of volunteers, which included Deen, who filled their bags with food. This was the first time the students were getting the bags to take home.

Principal Terri Boutin said she’s a huge fan of Deen’s, so she was excited to have her in the school to kick off the program.

“You have kids going home on the weekends who don’t have food,” she said, bringing up a story of a former cafeteria manager who got called by a kid over a winter break, who was asking when school would be back in session because he was hungry. “Well fed kids can concentrate [in class]. If you have two competing things in your head, hunger will win out every time.”

More than filling the backpacks, Deen also worked with the chefs at Horseshoe Southern Indiana Casino and Hotel to learn some of her recipes to cook for a fundraising lunch buffet Friday. Each of the about 300 attendees paid $80 per ticket, which will feed one child for a year. Jerry Finn, executive director of the Horseshoe Foundation of Floyd County, said the foundation matches each dollar raised, making it so that 600 children will be fed this year.

Finn said the program was at Children’s Academy of New Albany last year and was successful. However, that school closed over the summer. So this year, the foundation expanded the program to S. Ellen as well as Fairmont Elementary, in New Albany.

“We want Floyd County to be a great community for families to live and grow,” Finn said. “When children are hungry and not getting what they need, they can’t learn. It’s not the type of community we want to have, so we want to make sure children have the food they need.”

Many of S. Ellen’s children said they knew Deen from watching her TV show on the Food Network. Jason Nichols, 9, even went up to her, telling her that he’s her biggest fan.

“You’re my biggest fan? Well, you don’t look very big!” Deen said with a chuckle as she put her arm on his shoulders.

Nichols said he watches Deen’s show with his grandmother.

“Me and my grandma like it so much, we make the same things she does,” he said. “I’m just downright excited!”

“It was fun, because I got to hug her and she’s on TV and my mom makes her cakes,” 9-year-old Mykailya Jones said. “I like sugar and butter and she likes sugar and butter too!”

“It was a big honor, because she’s such a famous person and she’s my mom’s favorite person,” 10-year-old Lilly Baird said.

Stan Curtis, founder of Blessings in a Backpack, said it seemed like a perfect fit to team up with Horseshoe for a fundraiser with Deen. He said he could see how excited each child was to meet Deen, one-on-one.

“You never know if this transformation moment will make a difference in their lives and what it will do for them ... three, four, five years from now,” Curtis said. “You just hope it does.”