YMCA -- free lunches in summer food program

Nevada Daily Mail

For a fourth year, the Osage Prairie YMCA is participating in the Summer Food Service Program, providing free lunches to area children. But for the first time, they are providing that same service to offsite locations.

YMCA executive director Jeffrey Snyder said they decided to broaden the program after he attended a conference in Chicago earlier this year, where they were introduced to the Hop the Gap program, which attempts to bridge that gap over the summer months when children are out of school, especially between those whose families have higher income and those without.

The local YMCA has participated in that campaign through five themes this summer, including healthy living, safe spaces, education, child hunger and water safety, which included free swimming lessons for 256 second graders earlier this summer.

The YMCA uses the food service program, with the theme of Serving Up Summer, to continue in those goals by providing healthy meals as well as education opportunities at the Nevada Public Library and their own summer day camps.

When he first began considering the lunch program, Snyder said he did not think that kind of poverty, which would result in children not being able to eat lunch, would be an issue in Nevada, but further research showed that is the case for some local families.

"It's a big problem for us in this community," Snyder said. "You don't recognize it's there until you see it."

But in order to serve those families, the YMCA welcomes children under the age of 18 to their location Monday through Friday for a free lunch between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, they also distribute lunches at the Fairground Estates at 11 a.m., while on Monday and Friday they are available at the library at 12 p.m. and on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. at the city pool.

On a weekly basis, since the program's June 15 start day, Snyder said the YMCA has distributed about 500 meals at their location while they send about 40 meals to the other locations each day they distribute meals.

Snyder said they had a slow start to the program at first, but they continue to tell the public about the opportunity and have seen an increase in their numbers recently, even running out of meals at one of their locations Monday.

"We're slowly seeing more and more kids there," Snyder said.

At the same time that they are providing healthy lunches to the children, the YMCA also encourages their continued education, even during the summer, by providing books for children so they can practice their reading skills.

While the YMCA was not able to specifically partner with area schools since they did not decide to use the program until after school was out, Snyder said they would like to have involvement from the community, saying they could use volunteers to help distribute food as well as professionals who might like to help educate the children.

Anyone interested in participating in the program can contact Snyder or the other staff at the Osage Prairie YMCA. The program will continue until Aug. 19.

Snyder said they also have the goal of trying to hop the gap in people's understanding of the YMCA, since he said many think of it as just a fitness center and not as a non-profit organization that provides services to the community.

"If the YMCA wasn't here, these are the kinds of programs that wouldn't be there," Snyder said, adding they can always use participants and donations.