Summer ‘bagged lunch’ program helping Greene Co. kids
Brooke Wilson of Waynesburg receives one of the “Kids Bag” lunches from volunteer Thomas Toland during the Franklin Township Food Pantry’s food distribution drive Thursday morning.
Candace Tustin, executive director of the Corner Cupboard Food Bank near Waynesburg, earlier this month carries fruit drinks to a staging area where bagged lunches are made for a program that provides meals to low-income children in the summer and during the holidays when they’re away from school.
WAYNESBURG – A bagged lunch can go a long way for kids in need during the summer.
The Corner Cupboard Food Bank for several years now has been giving out the meals through its “kids bag program” that supplements the larger food distributions from the numerous pantries across Greene County.
The lunches are wrapped up in plastic grocery bags and include juice drinks, healthy snacks and sometimes even cereal.
They’re a good way to get nutritious meals to children, who would normally receive free or reduced lunches during the school year, when they’re away during summer break or holidays.
“If these growing children aren’t getting quality meals and are missing out altogether on lunch during the summer … we really feel this program is helpful,” Corner Cupboard Executive Director Candace Tustin said. “Their brains are developing, their bodies are developing. If they’re not eating right, then they’re not developing correctly.”
The food bank feeds a little more than 2,000 people – or about 1,000 households – in the county each month, Tustin said. There are about 400 to 500 children included in that number, making the bagged lunch program especially important, she said.
Tustin said the bagged lunches supplement other food families are receiving, which helps them to stretch that food even longer in between distribution drives at the 14 pantries in the county.
“With the food they’re getting from the pantry, it will last longer because they don’t have to use it if they’re getting some lunch from the bags,” Tustin said. “I feel like the ‘kids bag program’ is immensely important because they’re getting meals they wouldn’t otherwise during the summer.”
That could be seen from the line of people at the Franklin Township Food Pantry’s distribution day Thursday morning at the Greene County Fairgrounds.
Brooke Wilson of Waynesburg was there filling a small wagon with food when she walked over to a box truck with loads of bagged lunches spilling out the back. She picked up a couple bags for her children, Angel, 9, and Bella, 7.
How long the bag of lasts depends on what’s in it, she said. Cereal will last a week or two, while the smaller snacks will be gobbled up quickly.
“It helps greatly,” Wilson said. “It’s like a surprise for them when they dig in. It’s like a picnic for them.”
Zabryna Karnes, a housing outreach specialist for the county, has seen the importance of the program from both sides. She was volunteering with the distribution drive at the pantry Thursday, but she also has received assistance, including the bagged lunches for her two children, Dustin Rutan, 17, and Shyanne Wilson, 9.
“As a parent, it’s supplements those meals. It’s something quick for them to make,” Karnes said.
“It helps a lot, especially with families that have just suffered a job loss,” she added.
That’s even more critical now with the closure last year of Emerald Mine near Waynesburg and other job losses related to the energy industry, Tustin said.
Although the program has been ongoing for several years, Tustin said a $9,000 grant from EQT Foundation last October has helped them stuff bags full of food during the winter break and has given them a head start for the summer. Tustin estimates the food bank has spent about half of that grant so far and that the remainder of the money should get them through the rest of the year.
Volunteers periodically come to the food bank on Rolling Meadows Road to pack the lunches in assembly line fashion.
“I really believe in that hands on experience seeing firsthand what goes into those kids bags,” Tustin said.
To learn how to help volunteer or donate to the Corner Cupboard Food Bank, call Tustin at 724-627-9784.