The Westerville Area Resource Ministry (WARM) anticipates providing students aged 18 and under with more than 20,000 meals this summer, it has revealed.
WARM's Kids Lunch Club steps in to feed students nutritious meals during the off-season, when the free or low-priced lunches they eat at school are not available.
Jackie Haight, who coordinates the program for WARM, says the organization depends on the community and has been gratified by the response. The Kids Lunch Club started in 2011 with one school, and has now expanded to include seven additional locations throughout the Westerville City School District.
Haight says the program has a very simple goal - to feed every student in need in the school district. The meals are always free and on a first-come, first served basis.
Last summer, WARM served a total of 25,060 meals, 10,546 lunches, and 14,514 weekend meals, and it expects the numbers to be higher this year. About 300 children are served daily. The effort is administered by the Ohio Department of Education and is a USDA program. WARM chose its locations based on data from the federal census and the school district, which told it where qualifying students live.
Organizations like WARM can work with a postcard printing company to develop cards to mail to area families, listing the new sites offering free meals and their hours of operation.
