Though many students look forward to the end of the school year, for others, it means the end of a guaranteed lunch every day.
To provide for less fortunate students during that three-month down time, Westerville Area Resource Ministry started the Westerville Area Kids Lunch Club in 2011.
“We would like to feed every single child in the city of Westerville who is hungry during the summer,” says Jackie Haight, who coordinates the program at W.A.R.M. “These kids have the meals provided to them during the school year, but during the summer, there are no resources for them.”
The program is a U.S. Department of Agriculture program administered through the Ohio Department of Education. W.A.R.M. sponsors it for students in the Westerville City School District, having decided to jump in after Executive Director Scott Marier saw a need and an opportunity for the organization to meet it.
“He recognized that schoolchildren were not getting lunches in the summertime and that placed a strain on the summer budgets of families,” says W.A.R.M. Operations Manager Deb Wallace, who coordinated the program in 2011 and 2012 before Haight took over.
W.A.R.M. then worked with the school district and Mount Carmel St. Ann’s Hospital – a big supporter of W.A.R.M. and the program – to research summer meal programs and work out a plan to offer one in Westerville.
The Kids Lunch Club provides free lunches five days a week at sites in the Westerville school district. In 2012, it distributed a total of 9,537 meals over the course of the summer.
“On average, last year, 162 children attended daily,” Haight says, with the number topping 200 some days. “Over 1,000 children were impacted.”
It also provided 10,812 meals via a weekend backpack meals program that was being piloted by the state.
“(Kids) go home with a backpack on Friday and it provides them meals for the entire weekend,” Haight says.
In both programs, W.A.R.M. pays for the food and is reimbursed by the government for its cost. To be reimbursed, the organization must ensure the meals served meet all the relevant nutritional standards. It contracts with the school district, which is already required to meet those standards, to provide the meals.
The first year, W.A.R.M. brought meals to Ridgewood Park. Last year, it added three new sites: Huber Village Park, Strawberry Farms Park and La Vista Townhomes. Two more sites will be in the line-up this year: Alum Creek Park South and the Westerville Church of the Nazarene.
W.A.R.M. determines areas of the school district in need by studying the rates of free or reduced-price lunches. Then, when it finds an area with a definite need, it seeks a green space, park or other gathering area to distribute meals.
All sites except the Church of the Nazarene are open to everyone, even if they do not attend the core school there. The church is an enrolled site, as the rate of families nearby close to the poverty line is lower; parents who wish to send their children to eat there during the summer must register with W.A.R.M.
The first lunch each day begins at 11 a.m. Each meal session has a 45-minute lunch period, followed by about an hour and 15 minutes of enrichment activities.
“We provide physical education, nutritional education and other educational programs after lunch every day at every site,” Haight says.
Schedules are staggered to ensure each site has access to the enrichment activities of the day. The program goes forward rain or shine.
W.A.R.M. works with other community organizations to bring in speakers and activity coordinators. The Westerville Public Library, the Girl Scouts, the police and fire departments, the Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District, the Turtle Lady, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and horse therapy organization PBJ Connections have all helped with educational sessions, while Otterbein University and local churches have helped provide volunteers.
“These activities encourage the children to get out of the house and come to a park, not just for a meal, but for fun and engaging activities,” Wallace says.
W.A.R.M. – and, by extension, the Kids Lunch Club – is partly funded through donations, and Mount Carmel St. Ann’s Hospital has been a big sponsor, Haight says.
W.A.R.M.’s goal for 2013 is to increase meal distribution over the summer to 30,000, which it hopes to accomplish through the addition of the new sites. The program has had a big impact in Westerville, but W.A.R.M. is forever seeking to increase that impact, Haight says.
“When you see these kids five days a week for 10 weeks, you really get to know the families and parents,” Haight says. “Some of them have said, ‘This has gotten us through the summer, it’s helped me save $100 per month (on) a food bill.’”
It’s also decreased vandalism and other youth crime during the summer thanks to the increases it has effected in community awareness, says Wallace.
The organization is always seeking volunteers to help with distribution of meals. To enlist, contact Haight by calling 614-899-0196, ext. 218, or by emailing jackie@warmwesterville.org.
Garth Bishop is editor of Westerville Magazine. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
