BY SHARI NOCTOR

Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative president

Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative will be providing a children’s summer feeding program for Whitehall and Coplay residents for toddlers through age 18 for the 10 weeks school closes for the summer.

We are currently working on five or six location sites throughout Whitehall and Coplay.

Many children rely on the free and reduced-price breakfast and lunch provided in the Whitehall-Coplay School District. There are 4,242 children enrolled in the district. More than half of the children - 55.6 percent, 2,359 children - qualify for and receive free and reduced-rate breakfast and lunch.

The food service department closes during summer break. Unfortunately, when school closes, many children go hungry. Your neighbor may be one of these children since childhood hunger is very real and very well hidden. This is not just a Whitehall-Coplay issue. Childhood hunger is nationwide.

WCHI is committed to alleviating food insecurity to Whitehall and Coplay residents. Though we cannot feed every child, we hope to feed at least 500 children this summer. We are working with WCSD to verify where we think many food-insecure children live. Though the district cannot give me addresses, they can give me general areas. What was provided conforms to the data I already have.

Due to COVID-19, we will be doing drop-and-go distributions with dry food only. We do not have a facility to prepare sandwiches and do not want the liability of food safety with time and temperature for refrigerated items. A list of food items will be added to our website in April, but it will include items to make meals at home, such as cereal with shelf-stable milk, pancake mix, tuna, macaroni and cheese, ramen noodles, fruit cups, etc.

A prepacked bag of food will be provided for each child. Some baby food may be available. We will bring the food to the locations, which will be announced in the future. A parent or caregiver also can pick the food up for the household. We will be registering our guests by household just like we do for our pantry distributions.

I want to emphasize and encourage our guests to come to both this summer program and to our food pantry distributions, despite the COVID-19 stimulus and EBT money for food. The distributions are scheduled for 11 a.m.-1 p.m. and 5-7 p.m. the second Thursday of the month.

Most of our food is dry, shelf-stable food that will last well after the stimulus and EBT money is gone. We want you to come and take advantage of the food we offer. WCHI is here to help you and your family.

Though nothing is finalized, we are discussing doing the summer food program twice a week. We are considering 10-10:30 a.m. or 10-11 a.m. Monday and Wednesday mornings depending on the number of children attending at the various sites.

We cannot run this summer program or any of our programs without volunteers. We have a fabulous volunteer database and can always use more people to help with our various programs. A volunteer does not have to commit to the whole summer or every week, but each site will need to have four to six people and will be coordinated well ahead of time.

We have a fabulous volunteer software program and a great coordinator, Amy Sommers, who handles multiple sites and times. Child abuse clearances are required for all WCHI programs and can be found at whitehallcoplayhungerinitiative.org/volunteer-signup.html and whitehallcoplayhungerinitiative.org/volunteer-forms.html.

We are also considering providing books to the children attending this summer program. Children, who do not read over the summer, fall behind almost two grades when they go back to school in the fall. This is called the summer slide.

Though we are not providing programming, many people have softly used children’s books they want to donate to us, including the Whitehall Township Public Library and the general public. I’ll provide more information in April.

I am planning to hold an in-person public meeting on the summer feeding program 11 a.m. April 6 at our pantry, 3024 S. Ruch St. COVID-19 rules do apply. You must be feeling well and have not been recently exposed to someone with COVID-19. You must wear a face mask, and we will be social distancing.

Contact me with any questions you may have.