To the Editor:

The Community Lunch Program for Kids, which serves families living in the NNCS district, would like to publicly acknowledge receipt of a very generous grant of $600 from the Stewart’s Shops Holiday Match Program.

Through the generosity of Stewart’s Shops and their patrons, The Community Lunch Program for Kids (CLPK) was able to receive this wonderful grant to assist us in our mission of addressing children facing food insecurity when schools are closed for breaks and summer vacation. You see many families struggle when they need to provide an additional two meals (per child) when schools are on vacation and students do not have access to the “safety net” of free/reduced breakfast/ lunch programs.

Can you imagine having 3 children and having to provide an additional 30 meals per week (when school is not in session ) with no increase in your food spending dollars?

When businesses, civic groups, churches and individuals donate to The Community Lunch Program for Kids, this allows us to set up food distributions 11-12 times per year (including every two weeks during the summer- starting mid-June) to provide local families with large boxes of nutritious food (the equivalent of 15 meals per child) to address local food security.

CLPK has served over 500 unique children from over 200 unique families since it began in July of 2016.

Stewart’s Shops has been having their Holiday Matching Funds Program since 1986 and has given out over 36 million dollars since the program’s inception! This year, Stewart’s Shops received almost 2,000 applications for these grants, and CLPK was one of the fortunate ones to receive funds. The Community Lunch Program for Kids has benefited from this program for almost six years now. We are so incredibly grateful to Stewart’s Shops and all those businesses, civic groups, churches and individuals who support CLPK and the families we serve.

So the next time you’re looking for a cool treat, go to your local Stewart’s shop and support the company that does so much to support our local communities. (Besides, their ice cream is the best!)

Wendy Chambers, Coordinator
Community Lunch Program for Kids