SPONSOR a KID for Summer Feeding this summer and Click Here!
Reprinted from The Sentinel – Reporter Maddie Seiler
This summer, like years past, Project SHARE will offer its Summer Feeding for Kids
program. This year, however, it will do so without the help of government funding.
Project SHARE, a Carlisle food pantry that is dedicated to providing nutritious options for food insecure people, believes forgoing the program funds formerly provided by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture with the Pennsylvania Department of Education will
allow the nonprofit to feed more children.
Summer Feeding for Kids provides a week’s worth of breakfasts and lunches for each child in
households that register to ensure that children up to age 18 are receiving healthy meals in the months that school is not in session, Project SHARE said in a news release.
“Children in our community are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the lack of healthy
nutritious food in their summer diets,” Project SHARE CEO Bob Weed said. “This results from
normal school meals being unavailable during summer holidays. Combined with dwindling
home resources and increasing inflationary pressures a Summer Feeding program for our
community is that much more essential.”
In 2019, Project SHARE provided sessions in the morning three days of the week at five
locations with free snacks and lunches provided by the USDA and Department of Education.
Project SHARE said this was a “valuable addition” to the community and provided about 110
children with approximately 5,000 meals. However, children did not receive food on the days of the week they did not attend the sessions. USDA regulations also prevented children from
taking meals home and required that children be monitored in a congregant setting. Project
SHARE was also tasked with recording whether children tried the food they received, and it
could not provide food on the days without sessions.
In 2020 and 2021, the USDA waived several of its regulations with the intention of making food distribution “more widespread and efficient,” according to Project SHARE.
During that time, the nonprofit launched a weekly drive-thru distribution that provided seven days’ worth of breakfasts and lunches, as well as new books and prizes for children. Project SHARE said it donated over 54,000 meals to an average of 375 children per week in 2021 under this model.
In 2022, the USDA announced that the waivers would end, meaning that food distribution
would continue under the same restrictions in place in 2019.
However, Project SHARE believed it could accomplish more by choosing not to follow USDA
guidelines, and therefore opted to government subsidies with this year’s Summer Feeding for
Kids Program.
“Feeding the children in our community is a primary responsibility and role that we take
seriously,” Weed said. “We were not going to be coerced to return to a method that would feed less children under more restrictions. We know this has some element of financial risk, but we feel confident that this is right for our community.”
Households can register for the program online one week in advance and then pick up the
food each week at one of several drive-thru locations from June 9 to Aug. 12. Meals will be available from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. every Friday at the Amelia Given Library lot at 114 N. Baltimore Ave. in Mount Holly Springs; Plainfield First Church of God at 2089 Newville Road in Carlisle; and Project SHARE’s headquarters at 5 N. Orange St. in Carlisle.
A new time and location for pickup have been added to this year’s Summer Feeding for Kids
program, as well. Participants will also have the option of receiving meals from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Thursdays at the Project SHARE Farmstand at 123 Lincoln St. in Carlisle. “We expanded sites for 2022 to include additional hours, thus providing more flexibility for our families,” Weed said. “Plus, the Farmstand location is a site our families are familiar with and know through our regular Farmstand distribution.”
Nutrition Coordinator Emma Witwer is tasked with program administration that includes
ordering food, transporting meals to sites and providing families with suggested recipes.
“The menu planned for this year is packed with healthy, kid friendly foods,” Witwer said.
“Families can expect to receive turkey and cheese wraps, make your own quesadilla kits, PB&J
sandwiches and more, along with fresh vegetables, locally sourced fruit, milk and more. It is
important to me to plan menus that appeal to children’s tastes and are also full of healthy
choices.”
The Summer Feeding for Kids program will also provide new books for children every other
week beginning June 17. The books were donated and acquired through Barnes & Noble in Camp Hill’s annual Holiday Book Drive, as well as from the Capital Area Literacy Center.
–end article–
SPONSOR a KID for Summer Feeding this summer and Click Here!
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