When school lets out in June, those students who rely on the free and reduced-price breakfast and lunch program provided by school districts really do need our community’s help to alleviate childhood hunger throughout the summer. You have all seen the billboards and ads from Feeding America’s No Kid Hungry program, which reports that one in five kids go hungry over the summer.

That is true right here in Whitehall and Coplay.

Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative is committed to assisting these kids with a brand-new summer breakfast program starting 8:30-10 a.m. Monday through Friday, starting June 19 and ending Aug. 25. St. John’s Lutheran Church, 835 Third St., Fullerton, will be our host location.

We need everyone’s help from the community to make this a very successful program. Please attend our kick-off meeting at St. John’s 4 p.m. May 17. Parking is down the alley just north of the church. Park in the parking lot diagonal to the church, and come in the alley door where the ramp is located.

The summer breakfast program committee has been planning this for almost a year. Kindergarten through 12th-grade kids will get a nutritious breakfast and will go home with a bag lunch. Some funding has been provided by Catholic Diocese of Allentown’s Local Poverty Relief Fund, and some food, including milk and eggs, will be obtained from Second Harvest Food Bank. Monetary and food donations are appreciated. All checks should be payable to Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative and mailed to Shari Noctor, 1080 Schadt Ave., Whitehall, 18052. Please put “breakfast program” on the memo line.

To make this fun for the kids, we will have themed weeks and activities, crafts, games and exercises. We are doing reading to prevent the “summer slide” - this happens when kids do not read over the summer. They tend to fall behind when returning to school in the fall. If they go two summers without reading, they fall three years behind when returning in the fall.

Books for K-12th grade are encouraged to be donated and can be dropped off at Re/Max Unlimited to my attention. Some people have already signed up to help us with the reading portion of the program, including some of the Lehigh County Juvenile Probation officers, some teachers and high school students from Whitehall-Coplay School District and interested residents. I am asking both the Whitehall and Coplay libraries to help us however they can.

Janice Stavrou has come up with all the themed weeks. We have partnered with Penn State’s 4-H Program, which is offering two reading programs - “See It Sprout” and “Microwave Magic.” Also provided will be “Chicka Boom,” which will include embryonic hatching of baby chicks. We are excited about offering a wide range of programs for our kids.

Whitehall-Coplay School District has been very supportive of our efforts to bring to fruition a summer feeding program to alleviate childhood hunger over the summer. We do need five volunteers a day for the program. You can volunteer as much or as little as you want. We have a sign-up sheet. State clearances are required for any adult 18 years and older volunteering with us. These clearances are free.

We are hopeful this will be a successful summer program, so we can add a location in Egypt and Coplay next year. Your support is greatly appreciated. Transportation for the students will not be provided.

The committee hopes to see you May 17.

For more information, contact Lana Snyder, summer breakfast program chair, at 610-533-1357.