Local schools, organizations recognized for efforts to combat child hunger
MetroCreative
School districts and community organizations in Fayette, Greene and Washington counties have been recognized for their efforts to make sure children have enough to eat.
The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank is giving Child Hunger Hero awards to nine districts and community sponsors in the region. They were evaluated on their involvement in programs such as school meals, summer food, after-school meals, weekend backpacks and school pantry programs.
“The Child Hunger Hero Award Program is our opportunity to say thank you to food service professionals for their work to feed kids,” said Kelsey Gross, food bank director of child nutrition programs. “We recognize the huge amount of work that goes into creating healthy meals for kids, and we thank our partners for ensuring kids have the nutritious food they need to thrive.”
Child Hunger Hero Award levels are gold, silver and bronze, and are determined by a points system based on how significantly a partner contributes to a detailed list of child food security program standards.
Area gold winners are the LeMoyne Community Center in Washington, East End United Community Center of Uniontown and the Trinity Area School District. The LeMoyne and East End United community centers were gold winners in February as well.
Silver awards went to the Avella Area, Ringgold and Connellsville Area school districts.
Bronze award winners in the region are the California Area, Southmoreland and Southeastern Greene school districts.
“Making sure the kids in the community have food is so important to us,” said Paige Mahoney, assistant director of the East End United Community Center. “Getting the recognition for it makes us feel that much better. The kids get excited, too, when we share it with them. They like to get awards.”
The center has a number of programs focused on serving children and families. These include an on-site, after-school program geared toward kids in grades 1-5; the One School, One Voice program for middle school students; an on-site daycare; a monthly food bank and a community garden.
“It’s really grown in the last three years,” Mahoney said of the community garden. “It’s open to all members of the community, but we have a master gardener from Penn State Fayette who teaches the kids how to grow, how to harvest. We also bring the harvest in and show them what foods they can make with that. We live in a food desert, so building that garden and having a walkable place for them to come and get fresh vegetables has been really huge. We just want to serve the community as best we can.”
Trish Robinson, program director at the LeMoyne Community Center said the organization was “humbled” to be recognized.
“I was looking at the list with the different high schools and organizations and to be alongside the other winners, it’s a blessing,” she said. “I guess it shows that the youths in this area are getting fed. That’s the primary goal.”
The LeMoyne Community Center continues to offer programs such as Summer Camp, Summer Feed, Homework and More and the new Community Mobile Feed program.
“It has been such a success,” Robinson said of the new program. “Children are getting fed who can’t make it up to our program. Every Tuesday, we hit a different site in Washington and distribute the abundance of what we get from our monthly food bank and our local donors. As we get it, we’re giving it back to the community.”
Stops have already been made at Jollick Manor, Maple Terrace and Valley View Terrace in Canonsburg.
Programs addressing food needs for kids are a focus at the Trinity Area School District.
“It’s amazing,” said Kellie Smith, food service director, of the honor. “We put in a lot of work to make sure the children get fed in various forms.”
This includes the district’s nutrition program, breakfast program, after-school feeding, summer feeding, food pantry and food helpers, in which students are given a snack to take home.
“All of those programs go to just making sure children have food,” Smith said.
In all, 43 school districts and organizations in 11 counties received the award.