Mobile feeding unit program expanded
Suzanne Kelley, food coordinator/monitor of the mobile feeding unit program, hands out lunch to children Monday in the Jollick Manor community room in Washington.
Brothers Gavin Jackson, 5, and Edd Hamilton, 10, both of Washington, eat lunch during the mobile feeding unit program at the Jollick Manor, community room in Washington Monday.
Shining and excited faces of young children filled the community room of Jollick Manor on Monday, ready for a healthy lunch and community interaction.
LeMoyne Community Center kicked off the second year of its mobile feeding unit program, offering free hot and cold lunches for children up to age 18 at various locations through Aug. 19. Lunches are being served from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday.
All the food is prepared and lunches put together at Nazareth Baptist Church, then carried by bus to nine stops – eight in Washington – Washington High School, Jollick Manor, Belvedere Acres, Brownson House, Washington Estates, Washington Elementary Educational Park, Eighth Ward and Maple Terrace – and one location in Donora. Representatives of the local literacy council and Cokeburg Volunteer Fire Department pick up food for distribution.
“The main goal of this program is to feed kids, point blank, bottom line. No questions asked, no paperwork, no qualifying of income,” said Joyce Ellis, executive director of LeMoyne Community Center. “No kid will be not fed. There’s no requirements, no restrictions.”
According to Suzanne Kelley, the mobile feeding coordinator, cold lunches include items such as ham and cheese sandwiches, milk, fig newtons, oranges, apples and celery sticks with ranch dressing. Hot lunches could be things like spaghetti, sloppy joes, meatballs or pizza. All lunches are healthy and don’t include sweets.
“I love it. It’s something I do five days a week,” she said. Kelley will be coordinating the program every day until its completion, and says the goal is to surpass the number of children they fed last year, something they hope to achieve with the additional stops.
Ellis said last year the program was feeding more than 400 children a day. This year, they hope to do about 100 more meals each day.
Also included in the program will be games and activities such as jump rope, coloring contests and hula hooping, raffles of Kennywood and Sandcastle tickets for youngsters who attend every day, backpack giveaways, educational food facts and visits to some of the sites from policemen, firemen and congressmen, even biker groups such as the Blue Riders and Brothers of Hammer.
“We wanted to get the kids to know the fire department, the chief of police, the mayor …” Kelley said. “Let them interact with the kids so the kids feel like they can go to them if they need anything.”
The LeMoyne Center was selected by the Pennsylvania Department of Education to take part in initiating one of the first mobile feeding units in the area. One of the requirements of the state is that the children actually eat the food, which is why games and activities are going to be included.
The goal is to create an environment where children want to stay so they can finish their food and interact with other community members, Ellis explained. “It is a very moving experience. There is no way you can go out and feed these kids and not be moved.”
Dyluan Pearson, 7, and Eddie Hamilton, 10, attended the stop at Jollick Manor on Monday to receive lunches. Both boys said the program was “great and awesome,” and wanted to thank the coordinators and volunteers for the food. They plan to be back today.
Those interested in volunteering can call the LeMoyne Center at (724) 228-0260, or email thelmcc1956@gmail.com.