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Fighting summer hunger for kids
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Blase Schuller, 6, of Champion, enjoys his lunch Tuesday at the church, which offered pizza for lunch.
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Four-year-old Kenny Byrd drinks the milk offered with his lunch Tuesday at the program in Warren. An average of 50 children age 1 to 18 attend the meal each day. It is one of several such programs that operate in the Mahoning Valley in the summer.
The Vindicator ( Youngstown)
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With part of his lunch still in hand, Kenny Byrd, 4, has dessert to help cool off in the summer heat Tuesday at Warren City Schools’ Summer Feeding Program site at Austin Village Baptist Church on Warren’s west side. Blase Schuller, 6, of Champion, enjoys his lunch Tuesday at the church, which offered pizza for lunch.
Where families in need can find access to food assistance for children in the summer:
- Residents of Mahoning and Columbiana counties can dial 211 to reach Help Hotline Crisis Center, and Trumbull County residents can dial 211 to reach Trumbull 211.
- Protestant Family Services in Mahoning County, 330-746-4600.
- Catholic Charities Regional Agency, 330-744-3320.
Sources: Help Hotline Crisis Center, Trumbull 211
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
alcorn@vindy.com
Summer community feeding sites, food pantries and soup kitchens in the tri-county area help fill the hunger gap between June and September when government subsidized school free- and reduced cost-meals are not available for children.
Nearly 30,000 children in the Mahoning Valley live in poverty, said Michael Iberis, executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley.
Forty-nine percent of students in Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties are eligible for free- and reduced-priced meals during the school year, he said.
Food Bank member agencies see an increase in the number of families coming to them for food in the summer, Iberis said.
To fill the summer food gap, government-subsidized community feeding sites are established to supplement year-round feeding sites such as those operated by the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley, the Salvation Army and St. Vincent Depaul Society Kitchen, all in Youngstown, and the Warren Family Mission in Warren, and numerous other food pantries and kitchens in the Mahoning Valley.
In Warren, for example, one of the more than a dozen open community Summer Feeding Program sites is at Austin Village Baptist Church on Commerce Street behind the Austin Village Plaza.
The program serves lunch from 1 to 1:45 p.m. for children 1 to 18 and offers planned activities after the meal, said Nicole Medved, volunteer coordinator of the program and a member of the church.
Medved said the program runs through Aug. 19 and serves an average of 50 meals a day prepared by the Warren City Schools Food Service Department. Also, people up to 22 who are determined by a state or local public educational agency to be mentally or physically disabled are eligible, said Laureen Postlethwait, schools food service supervisor.
Many children come by themselves from the neighborhood. Parents bring smaller children, and if they volunteer, are also eligible for a free lunch.
One of those community volunteers is Cynthia Monday, 38, who brings her three children ages 2 to 10 to the lunch.
Monday, who lives on Commerce Street, said the free lunch helps stretch her grocery dollar, especially toward the end of the month when her food assistance benefits through the Ohio Job & Family Services can run low or run out.
“It really helps,” she said.
A nonprofit organization, Lamp Stand, operated two Summer Feeding Programs this summer that fed as many as 100 children a day, said Nathan Childers, executive director.
One was at Woodside Elementary School on Elmwood Avenue in Austintown, called Camp Woodside; and the other at Youngstown Christian School on Southern Boulevard, called Camp Newport.
Camp Woodside received volunteer and financial support from Austintown Community Church, Tabernacle Evangelical Presbyterian Church and Wickliffe Presbyterian Church, all in Austintown. Campbell Neighborhood Ministries provided the meals.
This year’s programs end Friday, but Childers said Lamp Stand plans on offering them again next summer.
Residents of Mahoning and Columbiana counties can access Food Bank member agencies and other sources of food by dialing 211 for the Help Hotline Crisis Center; and in Trumbull County by dialing 211 to reach Trumbull 211.