Program requires much work, coordination
Playing tag at Rotary Park in Butler, or swimming in the pool at Alameda Park in Butler Township?
Ten-year-old Kiarra Pennell of Butler can't decide which she likes better.
“I can't decide what's my favorite,” she said as she and about 50 other kids in the Rotary Shelter in Alameda Park finished lunch and were getting ready to jump in the pool.
The kids are in the Child Summer Food Service and Activities program run by the Grace Youth and Family Foundation in partnership with the Butler County Parks & Recreation Department.
The foundation prepares and serves meals and snacks, while the city pays for activities and crafts for children in the program at Rotary Park, Institute Hill Playground and Father Marinaro Park four days a week. On Tuesdays, kids from all the parks are taken to Alameda Park for lunch and swimming on a bus paid for by the city Rotary clubs.
“The people come because they're very fun,” Pennell said. “I always play tag at the park. That's my favorite game to play.”
Michelle Jacobson, 11, has fun at Father Marinaro Park and the pool.
“I like playing four square and swimming,” she said.
The program is intended to provide kids with free food and fun, but it takes a lot of work and coordination between the organizations.
An extension of the free and reduced school lunch program funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture through the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the summer program provides kids and teens 18 and under in low-income areas with free meals and activities.The city pays Grace Youth $8,000 to run the program and covers the admission costs at the pool for the kids.“It's the city's program and Grace Youth runs it for us,” said city Councilman Jeff Smith, who came up with the idea of taking the kids to the pool.“We've been doing things in the parks for 20 years. For the last 10 years, we've been running the Child Summer Food Service and Activities program,” said Bill Halle, Grace Youth founder. “We provide free lunches. We're a sponsor like the school districts.”During the first few weeks of the program, which runs from mid-June to mid-August, Grace Youth volunteers and staff prepare and deliver 20 lunches and snacks for kids at each of the three parks.The number of kids at each park averages between 15 and 20, but the number fluctuates from as low as five to as many as 30, so the number of meals taken to each park is adjusted as the summer goes on, Halle said.
Staff members track other events and activities that take place in the county and attract the kids who come to the parks to help determine the number of meals needed on those days, he said.Striving for efficiency is important because the foundation is reimbursed for the cost of the meals served, not uneaten meals.“It's a program you lose money on, but it helps us stay involved with the families and kids we serve,” Halle said.The meals, including the spaghetti that was served for lunch Tuesday at Alameda Park, are prepared at the foundation's Net Outreach youth and community outreach center on Center Avenue in Butler by Halle's wife, Debbie, and 14-year-old volunteer, Tyler Prentice.“It's fun. I get to do what I like, which is cooking and helping people. It's something I like doing,” Tyler said.The meals vary from hot foods to sandwiches with fruit, chips and granola bars packed along with the main dishes, he said.Sometimes they try different recipes such as pizza with a biscuit dough crust.“It was a mess, but it was good,” Tyler said.
The meals are delivered to the parks and playground where the children can make crafts and play.City council agreed to provide up to $2,000 to transport the kids to Alameda Park on swimming days, but the Rotary clubs stepped in to cover the cost.“The AM and PM Rotaries are providing funding to bus the kids to Alameda Park. It's a partnership,” Halle said.Volunteers from local and out-of-state church groups come to the parks at different times over the summer to assist with the program, Halle said.The churches include the Fishbone Ministries of Butler, New Life Christian Ministries in Saxonburg, Community Alliance Church in Center Township, Midland Evangelical Free Church of Midland, Mich., and the Redeemer Presbyterian Church from West Virginia.“We have about 150 volunteers through the course of the summer,” Halle said. “It's a huge coordination of volunteer effort over the summer.”
