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June 21, 2011
Free Summer Lunches Provided for Schenectady's Kids

School is almost out for the summer; so what happens to Schenectady kids who are used to having lunch at school? Well, just eat lunch somewhere else, you might say. But for roughly 70 percent of students in the Schenectady City School District—those who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches—the answer may not be so simple.


For many of our children, lunch is their first meal of the day. When asked why, some responded that there was not much food in the house, or that their mother was already at work when they got up. In some areas of our city, families often struggle to make ends meet. Sometimes, after paying the rent and other bills, there is not enough money left over to buy adequate food. The current economic downturn has made this all the more difficult. Some children come to lunch early in order to be first in line, and wait an hour after eating to see if they can have seconds.


For fifteen years, the SICM free summer lunch program has helped hungry children here in Schenectady. Without this program, many kids would not have a regular midday meal throughout the summer. Lunches are served at locations specifically targeted to reach the largest number of hungry children. At most of SICM’s summer lunch sites, nearly 100% of the children qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. The NY State Education Department and the U.S. Department of Agriculture fund SICM’s summer lunch program by reimbursing SICM for each meal served. Lunch is available to youth 18 and under, and we expect to feed about 800 kids each day. There is no enrollment required.


SICM serves food at several of the city’s parks, including Quackenbush Park, Jerry Burrell Park, Central Park, Hillhurst Park, and Wallingford Park, Carrie Street Park, and Steinmetz Park, which is a new site this year. Lunch is also provided at two of the city’s municipal housing locations: Yates Village and Steinmetz Homes. The remaining three sites include: Faith United Methodist Church (Eastern & Brandywine), Trinity Lutheran Church (Central State Street cluster, Furman Street), and Friendship House (955 State Street).


This year, the program runs five days a week from June 27th- September 2rd, the entire duration of summer vacation. In case of rain, each site has a sheltered area. Last summer, over 28,000 meals were prepared and distributed. The food is a variety of hot lunches and cold lunches, following a menu which closely mirrors that of the meals children receive in school. The food is prepared locally through a contract with JR Proprietors, who operates out of the county’s Community Business Center at 920 Albany Street.


Although the program starts on Monday, June 27, the official kickoff to the program will be held on Wednesday, June 29, at 11:30am at Jerry Burrell Park (Schenectady and Hamilton Streets). The kickoff will feature a Bouncy Bounce for the kids, and will include remarks from local dignitaries.


The twelve summer lunch sites are predominantly staffed by volunteers. By the end of the summer, approximately 600 volunteers will have donated their time and effort to help feed Schenectady’s children in this broad-based community effort. Lunches will be served by over 35 area congregations, as well as local businesses and organizations such as GE, Schenectady ARC, Concerned for the Hungry, Griswold Funeral Homes, the Air National Guard, the Rotary Club,5 GE Corporate Offices, and Wade Tours. For the first time, we have volunteering: Spataro Insurance Agency, Logic Technology Inc., Siemens, and the League of Women Voters.


In addition to serving food, volunteers interact with children through various activities such as story telling, playing games, doing arts and crafts, coloring, or playing with bubbles. As Crys Hamelink, who has worked hard to line up the volunteer groups said, “Through their generosity, these volunteers fill over 2500 ‘slots’ to feed the kids. We just couldn’t do it without them.”


SICM is also working in conjunction with other programs running at sites during the summer that provide activities for children. For example, the Boys and Girls Club of Schenectady has a program at Quackenbush Park and Steinmetz Park, and the YMCA runs a day program at Jerry Burrell Park. We are also working in conjunction with the County SCORE Camp at Central Park, as well as a 2-week Science Camp at Steinmetz Park: STEM—Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.


Schenectady Inner City Ministry (SICM) is a coalition of congregations founded in 1967 for joint programs of social service and social justice. SICM runs a host of programs serving the city and county of Schenectady, including the SICM Food Program and pantry, the Schenectady Damien Center, Spiritually Sound-Physically Fit, the Safe Playgrounds/Edible Parks initiative, and others. The summer lunch program is funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture through the New York State Education Department.


For more information, contact Allison Williams, Summer Lunch Manager, of SICM (Schenectady Inner City Ministry) and Summer Lunch Coordinator, at 518.374.2683, ext. 103, or at allisonw@sicm.us; Janet Mattis, SICM Community Outreach Coordinator at 518.466.7602, or SICM Executive Director, Rev. Phillip Grigsby, at 518.374.2683 or 518.441.1390.

http://www.schenectadychamber.com/news/index.cfm#478news

Proctors should be opening up their doors (or Key Bank Hall) to help run such a program as they are a non-profit, always boasting about their contributions to the Schenectady youth and contribute very little to the schools and City tax base.

Quoted from rachel72

Proctors should be opening up their doors (or Key Bank Hall) to help run such a program as they are a non-profit, always boasting about their contributions to the Schenectady youth and contribute very little to the schools and City tax base.

Key Bank Hall is being used for DEM fund raisers like Leesa for City Council. They contribute nothing but it's far worse than that. Proctor's has taken other buildings off the Downtown's tax roll, eroding the tax base, causing job flight and worsening the revenue decline. BTW-how's Mercury Morris coffeehouse doin? ROTFLMAO!!

"Remarks from local dignitaries"-translation Taxin Tonko and County gasbag Gary Hughes will both be speaking! Y'all come and bring strong coffee.

       Thank you Boys and Girls Club, Union College and Ellis Hospital for all generously supporting the City pool program. Hiss to inflated Mercury Morris at Proctor's. The only major nonprofit that refused to contribute a nickle to Stratton's Fair Share Plan. He was too busy taking the coffeehouse and Key Bank permanently off the City tax rolls.

It bothers me the way they act as if parents not feeding their kids is an understandable thing.

Now the whacked nattering nayboobs of negatrivity want the kids to starve all summer.    

It's the parents responsibility to feed and cloth their kids not to the governments.

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

Now the whacked nattering nayboobs of negatrivity want the kids to starve all summer.    

DV, the homeowner taxpayers are shouldering more than their share of the burden.  Homeowners in the city are struggling from being one of the HIGHEST taxed cities in the whole damn country, and the people in the city are barely middle income.

Nos, DV, you should agree that the milllionaires downtown who are exempt from taxes should fund these lunch program.  

Proctors and their preciouis uppity catering place have more than enough money to feed all these kids?  So, do you agree that they should do this in exchange for them not paying taxes?  

Well?   I mean WHY would you exempt the millioniares downtown from providing for the poor?   Why would you think it's better for the financially styruggling overtaxed homeowners, some in danger of losing their homes to tax seizure, be the ones to provide when the millionaires live away from the city, living their lavish life....tell us DV, isnt' it propert that they feed the kids?

MC wants the little children to go hungry  .. just like he and his Nazi-thug buddies  (KR, GB and MT, Bennysalami)   want to close the county nursing home and throw the old people on the street ...   just like they want to destroy REMS  so that people will suffer in agony waiting for some for-profit ambulance to find its way to Rotterdam ....

they are mean-spirited and heartless totalitarian monsters.

No DV, MT, GB, KR and Benny don't want the neighborhoods to keep turning into war zones where City children are murdered.

The City has to STOP METROPLEX, stop the wasting of our taxpayer money on bars and other restaurants, tax the entire Downtown area and put its priority back in helping the neighborhoods become safe, florishing areas where people can live.

Make Proctors a meal site and force them to pay back the numerous Plex loans, they need to contribute to helping our children and helping them NOW!

MVP also has plenty of room to help children as well.

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

Now the whacked nattering nayboobs of negatrivity want the kids to starve all summer.    

Now they have 2 feeding centers 4 blocks from each other at Yates and Steinmetz Park. What about Monday and Tuesday next week? Mama might have to make some cheese sandwiches? Boo-hoo. Central Park alternates between free lunch site, free pool, free County taxpayer funded summer camp by Lumpy Kosiur and free pit bull shot site. Then the DEM morons wonder why the park is a pig pen.

     The DEMS pretend there is no Food Stamps which has hit record participation because of Obama policies. Unlike you I support this program but how many feeding sites are enough? The nattering nayboobs were right about Nixon/Agnew-we're right about McCarthy/FDG.

Did someone advocate for letting children starve on this site? I read all the posts on this topic, and I didn't see that.

Give everything FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE! Make it all FREE. America is almost dumb enough after all these years of unionized public education to believe it can be so.

There is no such thing as a free lunch-except if served up by Lumpy Kosiur aka {Father Flanagan}. BTW as usual the DEMS are making up figures. Over 80% of the City students are on the free lunch program. More evidence of the tremendous renaissance the City since SS Savage was sworn in. Another huge tax increase and another all DEM moron City Council might just turn it around.

So sad that  MC, MT, GB, KR and the other nayboobs  prefer letting children starve and having old folks thrown out on the street -- all so they can continue their attempt to raise the   red, white and black banner of their  ideological hero and mentor.