Back to school for a lot of kids means getting breakfast and lunch every day.  What happens on the weekends?  Hungry isn’t just Monday through Friday.

Grow Seneca is teaming up with the Tiffin Community YMCA to support their Weekend Food Program 2015-2016 — Filling the Gaps in Children’s Nutrition.

For those of you who know Deena Smith,  Tiffin YMCA Director of Social Responsibility, she has been working tirelessly to get this program off the ground.  We are partnering to work toward a goal of sourcing and preparing these meals locally.  Also to organize a delivery route system to get meals to  children in their own neighborhoods during holiday breaks and over the summer months.

In Deena’s words,  “It is an important goal of our weekend food program to ensure that all children in our community have the healthy food they need to grow strong in spirit, body and mind. School breakfast and lunch, only meet the needs of children five days a week. The Weekend Food Program provides food for the weekend to help meet children’s nutritional needs when these other programs are not available.

What is the Weekend Food Program?

An effort of cooperation involving public schools and other community partners to provide food insecure kids with additional nutritional support by supplying a weekend’s worth of food each Friday. Each child will receive one bag consisting of six balanced meals including whole-grain cereals, protein-rich entrées, canned fruits and vegetables, milk and snacks. Each BackPack is designed to provide the nutritional equivalent of the breakfasts and lunches that a child who relies on free or reduced-price meals through the school lunch program is missing on the weekends.

As of today we have 451 children enrolled in the weekend food program. This number includes children in grades K-5 and siblings through grade 8. The applications are still rolling in, and we could reach as high as 500 kids before the end of the month. “

Join us in supporting this first initiative for Grow Seneca.  Proceeds from our Farm to Table dinner will do directly to the YMCA as we help them in this effort.  See you on Court Street on September 26th.  To order tickets to the first annual event click here.                   Or call (567) 220-6606

Cindy Kalnow