close

Donations sought for summer food program

3 min read
article image -

When Joyce Ellis and her team of volunteers provide meals to school-aged children through the summer, they’re not just filling stomachs.

“We’re feeding their minds. We’re stimulating their brains,” said Ellis, executive director of LeMoyne Community Center in East Washington. “We’re helping them to not fall behind during the summer.”

According to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, which helps coordinate meal distribution sites in the region, 29 percent of Greene County children are eligible for free or reduced lunches during the school year. In Washington County, 22 percent are eligible, accounting for 483,945 potentially missed meals during the summer.

Ellis began distributing food in 2009 to combat summer hunger. The number of kids being fed through the program continues to increase. Ellis said she had to deny requests for feeding sites from other Washington County communities because the funding is not there to support them.

“Our biggest problem is the program is growing beyond funding. We are carrying the bulk of the feeding program in Washington County. We increased from 2015 to 2016 by 34 percent,” said Ellis. “The real struggle is, when we began our feeding program, we were reaching 5 percent of eligible kids. That means 95 percent were going without. We’ve raised that to 9 percent, which is still low. I don’t know how to stop it. There’s such a need.”

Washington School District provides free breakfast and lunch to every student as part of the Community Eligibility Provision from the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. Schools qualify if more than 40 percent of the district’s students are “identified students,” meaning they have been either recognized as low income by another program or are considered at risk of hunger.

Washington qualifies for the program because 56 percent of the population in 2015 were identified students.

Last year across the county, 35,000 meals were distributed through the summer. The LeMoyne Center distributed more than 23,000 of those meals.

The LeMoyne Center hosts Camp Challenge, a free day camp for children who have completed kindergarten up to 18 years old, where three meals are served daily.

Camp begins next week, and some spots are still available.

The center also distributes lunches to eight sites in school district through the Nutrafit Mobile Feeding program.

“We cannot deny any kids. We don’t ask them for any information. There’s no barrier to get to our food,” Ellis said. “You walk in and get food, no questions asked.”

The program receives some state and federal money, but the majority is funded by the nonprofit.

In 2016, the center served between 460 and 790 children daily.

Ellis said the center is looking for donations, especially fresh fruits, vegetables and meat. There is also a need for volunteers.

“Please come and help us. The brunt of this should not fall on one entity. This should be a community effort,” said Ellis. “I will guarantee, when we feed the kids, we’re not just giving food, we’re helping their brains.”

To register, donate or volunteer for LeMoyne programs, call 724-228-0260.

Feeding sites are also available in Greene and Fayette counties. To find the closest feeding site, call 2-1-1, or text “FOOD” to 877-877.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $3.75/week.

Subscribe Today