Leechburg Area opens annual summer food program

Tess Diehl’s job is her passion.

“We’re ready to feed the people,” she said.

As Leechburg Area’s food service director, Diehl is in charge of feeding students during the week in the school year and through the summer. This summer is no exception.

On June 9, the high school cafeteria opened its doors to people for the district’s Summer Youth Cafe, a program that feeds all attendees under 18 a free meal during the week. Diehl preps for each week by creating a menu that fulfills each food group requirement and provides a meal for hungry students. Each lunch comes with a vegetable, a fruit and options of juice and milk.

“I try to keep the menu simple, being that it’s summer and I’m limited as far as products and ordering,” Diehl said. “I do utilize similar products that the students are familiar with (from) throughout the school year.”

She tries to make the students feel comfortable eating their meals by offering the lunches they’re used to see during the school year. Adults are also welcome at the cafe, but meals cost $4.75 in cash for anyone over 18.

“Anyone who comes, we’re happy to feed them,” Diehl said.

Diehl said the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank helps the district advertise the summer feeding site through physical and digital marketing.

Beth Burrell, director of communications for the food bank, said the food bank will help sites participating in the federally funded Summer Food Service Program either by sponsoring sites directly, or helping sites advertise services.

Sites can also work with sponsoring organizations who provide food directly or through a vendor. Each summer cafe needs to have a designated leader to serve food and complete necessary paperwork.

“How they provide their meals is up to the organization themselves,” Burrell said.

There are over 400 sites in the 11 counties the food bank services, Burrell said. There are currently 11 sites in Armstrong County and 76 in Allegheny County that serve free meals for students in the summer. Some sites offer breakfast and lunch while others offer lunch only. Burrell said the food bank encourages people to visit the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank website to see the master lists of summer food service locations, service options and service times.

Over 40,000 meals were served across 11 counties last summer, Burrell said.

Summer Youth Cafe sites aren’t all located at school districts, but can be registered anywhere that children may gather in a community including churches, parks and community centers. It is required that sites are located in eligible areas, meaning school districts or census-tract areas where the majority of kids qualify for free or reduced price meals.

“The budget reconciliation bill impacts children, but not through the summer youth feeding programs,” Burrell said in an email. “It would limit spending on Summer EBT and SNAP dollars going to families with children. The FY26 annual appropriations bill does cut some child nutrition program funding, but the specifics of that are not yet available.

“While there are things we don’t know yet, the cuts we are aware of will leave thousands of kids in our region at risk because of the loss of access to food through SNAP.”

Diehl said drawing kids to the cafe has been a struggle. She sees about 10 children a day at the cafe.

“I get it,” Diehl said. “It’s hard to get the kids to come to school on their summer break.”

She said she’ll continue to advertise the free meals to the community.

“It’s a free meal. Mom, dad or whoever, it’s one less thing for them to think about,” Diehl said.

The Leechburg Area Summer Youth Cafe opens from 11 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday in the school’s cafeteria through July 17, Diehl said. A menu is available on the Leechburg Area School District website.