Summer Food Program
Free Summer Food Service Program
Children who rely on free or reduced priced meals during the school year are at risk of experiencing hunger and malnutrition if their families cannot afford the additional cost of food when school ends for the summer. The Boys & Girls Club of Greater Westfield, with the help of the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) and Project Bread, is establishing new SFSP sites to ensure as many youth as possible do not go hungry this summer.
As a SFSP sponsor administer, the Boys & Girls Club will be responsible for all financial and administrative aspects of the program sites. SFSP covers the cost of the meals and Project Bread helps to defray equipment costs.
"It is our goal to provide balanced nutritious meals to children during the summer, especially to those families who are struggling financially," stated William Parks, executive director. "The new sites will allow us to reach more children in need and ensure they do not return to school in September malnourished. These sites offer children access to the food they need in order to return to school ready to learn."
The new SFSP sites will be located at Edgewood Apartments, 134 Union Street, Westfield and the Youth Resident Activities Program in Pheasant Hill Village, 25 Pheasant Hill Road, Feeding Hills. In addition, the site at Westfield's spray park located on Hubbard Street will again be in operation.
The sites will begin offering lunches to children between the ages of 5 through 18 on June 28th till August 20th. Through the SFSP Incentive Grant balanced lunches that follow the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) nutritional guidelines will be served from 12:00 - 1:00pm, Monday through Friday. At the Spray Park site no registration or identification is needed to receive free lunches. A sample lunch could include a turkey wrap, carrot sticks, fresh fruit and low fat milk. The sites also offer activities for children to enjoy in addition to healthy meals.
As a gathering place for children and their families, the Spray Park site proved to be a perfect location for the program last year. Over the course of the summer, the Spray Park site alone was able to provide over 1,600 meals. With the new sites opening this summer the number of children who will benefit from this program is predicted to dramatically increase. For the past four years the Boys & Girls Club has also been serving nutritious breakfasts and lunches at their Kidscape Summer Camp and in their extension unit at Powdermill Village Public Housing.