The Summer Youth Café is open in three Lower Valley communities to offer free lunches to local children.
Aimed at providing healthy meals to anyone 18 or younger, the program is run by the Youth Empowerment Project in Sharpsburg.
“We have a group of kids from Fox Chapel Area’s high school and middle school who saw a need for food to be distributed during the school-year shutdown,” Program Director Tarcia Rebeiz said.
“They wanted to continue that during summer. They come together everyday, in masks, to make meals, and it’s going really well.”
A cold lunch and snack are handed out from noon to 1 p.m. weekdays at the Youth Empowerment site, 1650 Main St., as well as the Blawnox municipal building, 376 Freeport Road, and the Christ Lutheran Church of Millvale, 917 Evergreen Road.
“This is a good way for children to have a healthy lunch and snack,” Blawnox Manager Kathy Ulanowicz said.
“There are no income requirements, which is nice.”
A brown bag lunch on any given day usually has a sandwich, fruit, veggie, milk and chips. Children also get a snack and juice.
“We do our best to get the best produce we can and send them home with something healthy,” Rebeiz said.
Giveaways are popular, with a total of up to 65 meals distributed each day. But organizers are eyeing changes that might enable even more families to participate.
Rebeiz said she hopes to start bundling meals and giving away three-days worth at a time. That way people don’t have to find time to make a daily stop.
She is hoping to add breakfast items into the mix as well.
“I think doing grab-and-go meals, three days at a time, would give more people the chance to get there instead of having to find time every day,” she said.
“We’ve got a good crowd but I think we could do even more with bundles.”
