CINCINNATI — More families are turning to an area church for help to feed students after pandemic relief funds stopped for school lunches.
McKennzie Kearns is bagging up lunches. She has about 25 students to help pack for.
“I think kids honestly kind of shy away from saying, you know,’Oh, I don’t have money for food,’” said Kearns.
She and a team of volunteers at Glen Este Church in Cincinnati are a part of a program called ‘Project Lunchbox.’
“Everyone needs help and so, it’s definitely hard to see that, you know, it’s not going away, it’s getting worse,” Kearns said. “I’m glad that our church has this outreach.”
Every week the church provides food for kids in need to take home over the weekend.
Tanner Dalton, assistant minister at the church, said this school year they’ve been getting more requests for help to feed families.
“A big contribution, from my understanding, is the lunches at the schools aren’t free anymore,” said Dalton. “So more families are willing and wanting to sign up for something like this.”
For the past two years, COVID relief funds paid for all student lunches, but this school year, it went back to income based. That means students have to pay for lunch unless they’re considered low income.
The extra costs on top of inflation are why Dalton said they’re planning to do more.
“The bags we pack that’s not the only thing that we’ve started doing,” Dalton said. “We’ve started offering a free community lunch every so often, and we’ve even seen an increase in that.”
He said they’re planning to expand the program to include more schools, more donations, and volunteers so kids won’t have to go without.
“We’re going to be there,” Karns said. “We’re going to be there, and we’re going to be there to help only when we can and where we can.”
For more information about Glen Este Church and its outreach ministry ‘Project Lunchbox’, click here.
