Several years ago, we noticed a population of hungry folks who surprised us: children.
We saw that during school breaks, weekends and the summer, they were falling through the gaps and putting a tremendous amount of stress on parents and grandparents to provide extra meals. We found that even families who ate regularly had extra stress because other kids in the neighborhood were showing up around meal time.
Since childcare is a huge issue in Juneau along with housing, grandparents or friends end up feeding kids when they are already on a tight budget.
There are several ways that the Food Resource Summit, a coalition of many of the food agencies in town, has responded.
We’ve organized a group called Feeding Juneau’s Future. That group has been able to provide weekend food bags to nearly 300 elementary youth every weekend. We are looking forward to universal breakfasts in the elementary schools next year.
Summer continues to be one of our biggest gaps. There is a collaboration between Northern Light United Church, Douglas Methodist Church, Common Grounds and the USDA to provide lunches in Gruening Park, Cedar Park and Geneva Woods, which began May 31 and runs Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
This will be our fifth year for summer lunch at Shepherd of the Valley. Our first year, we served about 600 lunches. Last year we served nearly 2,000 lunches. We will kick off the year with a bike rodeo today from 4-5:30 p.m.
Families may stop by the church for free hot dogs, a bike course run by Mendenhall Flying Lions, helmets provided by Thrivent Financial, minor bike repairs with Juneau Freewheelers Bike Club, a bike swap with bikes donated by JPD, and lots of carnival games.
The summer lunch program will begin Monday, June 6. Outside supervised recreation activities begin at noon, and lunch is served from 12:30-1:30 p.m. We do not provide transportation, but we will provide walking and riding buddies to help younger kids get to the church safely.
Every day has a different activity. Mondays are science day, Tuesdays are gardening, Wednesdays are cooking, Thursdays are crafts, and Fridays are music and stories. We will have reader buddies available everyday with lots of books. If you are interested in more information or would like to volunteer, please call Shepherd of the Valley at 789-4093 or check out the website at sovlutheran.org. Volunteers must undergo a background check.
What’s being served:
• Monday is sloppy joes/taco day.
• Tuesday is chicken casserole or baked chicken and mashed potato day.
• Wednesday is cooking day. We will do Asian, Italian, and macaroni and cheese. This is also the only day with dessert!
• Thursday is breakfast and fruit.
• Friday is grill your own sandwich day.
