Food for the Summer is well into its second year of providing lunches for children in need in the community and according to new program coordinator Emma Jenkins-Sullivan, the program has seen growth in outreach and involvement.

“Last year we had over 650 volunteers come out from the community,” said Jenkins-Sullivan, “and we’re hoping to grow that number even more this summer.

Individuals and local groups alike have reached out to lend a hand to children in need.

“We have many different collaborators: non-profit collaborators and local government collaborators working with us on the program as well.”

Among those collaborators are TABLE, which has provided children with bags of food to take home for the weekends, and Book Harvest, who donated books to the program.

“We also have something called free book Wednesdays so we’ve been lucky enough to be able to get a bunch of books out from Book Harvest,” said Jenkins-Sullivan. “The other day I picked up about a thousand for our first haul for the summer.”

Jenkins-Sullivan says that the enthusiasm among volunteers in the community has been noteworthy.

“There are volunteers that come out daily and there are volunteers that come out even though they might not have a ton of time during the day because they really feel like this is an important issue. Hunger is something that we can fix and something that we can work together to end, especially locally in our community.”

You can find more information about donating or volunteering here.

Related Stories
‹
Food for the Summer Sees Growth in 2018
Food for the Summer recently wrapped up its third summer after serving over 50,000 meals this year. Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger, who was a driving force in the program’s origination, said the town is working to find ways for the program to serve even more children next summer. “Lots of enrichment programs, lots of […]
Food for the Summer Hitting Its Stride
While the summer months are usually spent relaxing with family and sitting by the pool, many kids in the local area will be without meals typically provided by schools. That’s where Food for the Summer steps in, proving nutritious meals throughout the summer for school children in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools District. Carolyn Brandt, […]
Hometown Hero: Carolyn Brandt
This week’s Hometown Hero, presented by Hendrick Southpoint, is Carolyn Brandt from Food for the Summer! Carolyn is the Program Director for Food for the Summer, an organization that helps kids who normally rely on school lunches get food during the summer months. “Nutrition is super important for retaining information when kids are learning. We […]
Food for the Summer Gears Up for Year Two
Food for the Summer is gearing up to provide local kids with free lunches until school starts again at the end of August. More than 3,500 children in the Chapel Hill – Carrboro City School District qualify for free-and-reduced lunch. That’s almost 30 percent of the school system. It’s also the percentage of the school […]
Headhunters Seek Executive Director for Local Non-profit Group
The Inter-Faith Council for Social Services, a non-profit advocacy group that supports homeless residents of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, has partnered with a search firm to find its next executive director. Michael Reinke served as the executive director for the IFC before stepping down in August – an event that prompted the group’s board of […]
Food for the Summer Distributes More Than 48,000 Meals in Pilot Summer
One word kept coming up at the meeting wrapping up the Food for the Summer effort last Wednesday, amazing. An amazing number of meals served; an amazing effort to organize all of the moving parts; and amazing work by community members volunteering to hand out these meals. “We had no idea how we were going […]
Chapel Hill Food for the Summer Program Passes 10,000 Meals
Food for the Summer partnership celebrated its success in providing 10,237 meals for children so far this summer with a Jumpstart Festival at Hargraves Community Center on Thursday. The partnership, brought together by Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger, is a group of 12 local organizations whose goal is to feed the 30 percent of Chapel […]
New WCHL Owner on Station’s Future
Leslie Rudd is a Colorado-based entrepreneur and philanthropist with Chapel Hill ties, who will also be the new owner of WCHL and Chapelboro.com, once the final administrative hurdles are cleared. WCHL has a history of serving Orange County that dates back to 1953. READ MORE: New Owner Announced for WCHL and Chapelboro Rudd says he is […]
What do Candlelight, Dessert, and Woody Durham Have in Common?
Well, on September 23rd, the Triangle Radio Reading Service is honoring Woody Durham, “The Voice of the Tarheels,” at its “Dining by Candlelight: Dessert in the Dark” fundraiser. The Triangle Radio Reading Service (TRRS) provides live news and information to people who are visually and print impaired and live in a 20 county area of […]
Affordable Homes, Indian Food, and All That Jazz…
This Friday, September 9th, the Community Home Trust will rock the new Greenbridge building with cool jazz by mahaloJazz, Indian food by Vimala’s Curryblossom Cafe, wine by Milltown, and interesting conversation by current and former mayors and council members, community volunteers, and, hopefully, you! The Community Home Trust’s mission is to sell and preserve affordable […]
›