The Fair Acres Family Y and Carthage School District are teaming up to provide meals for children during the extended break from school forced on students because of the Coronavirus outbreak.
The Carthage School District announced on Friday it will provide meals to all children 18 years old and younger to be picked up at one of three schools in the district on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Jonathan Roberts, director of the Fair Acres Family Y in Carthage, said the Y plans to offer meals on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays to anyone who needs them in Carthage to supplement the school district’s efforts.
The school district will distribute meals from 10 a.m.-11:30 a.m. at three locations; the east bus loop at the Carthage High School; east bus loop at the Carthage Junior High and east parking lot at Columbian Elementary School.
Roberts said the Y is still looking for meal distribution locations, but it plans one or two locations in each of the five city council wards in Carthage.
“We’ve got permission to use Innovative Industries and the Church of the Nazarene,” Roberts said. “We’ve reached out to other business and we want to set up a mobile opportunity to get the meals directly to the apartment complexes we have in town, like the one across from Lowes, the ones off Baker, where ever else there might be a mass amount of people who utilize that service.”
Filling a gap
In the Carthage School District, a little more than 60 percent of students receive free or reduced meals at school, and for some children, the school might be the only place where they get a square meal.
“There are roughly 3,000 kids that are on that free and reduced lunch program,” Roberts said. “We know that some of them don’t have running water or electricity, we know some don’t have stoves or microwaves, and so we need a place where we can prepare the meals and where they can come and pick them up ready to eat. Those of us that are close to the children know that that’s a key service that the schools provide when they’re open that is lost when they’re not open. So we’re just able to step in and fill that gap when needed.”
Baker said district officials know the need will be there for children.
“We believe we need to offer services to our kids and this is an opportunity to help them,” Baker said. “You’ll have breakfast and lunch for Monday and Tuesday, breakfast and lunch for Wednesday and Thursday and breakfast and lunch for Friday.”
While the district is only distributing meals to children under 18, Roberts said the Y won’t place an age restriction on people wanting their meals.
Roberts said the Y is reaching out to Carthage and area restaurants who might have food on hand they won’t be able to use before it spoils because people are staying home.
He posted a statement on the Y and his personal Facebook page saying the Y would accept food as a donation or it has funds to purchase it from the restaurant at the cost the restaurant paid.
“We’d love to have it donated, but if they need, we’ve got funding to be able to purchase that from them at the cost they pay, to help them out as well,” Roberts said. “We’re not necessarily asking for a handout but we’re not going to overpay either. We want to help alleviate their costs.”
Please stay with us
Roberts said the Y is using this project to keep as many of his 80 employees working who want to work even though the Y is shutting down all operations because of the Coronavirus crisis.
Roberts said he expects to close the Fair Acres Family Y on Grand Avenue on Saturday as rules tighten prohibiting large groups of people as a way to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus.
The Y already closed its new Carthage Square location and suspended its group classes, swimming pool access, child watch programs and adult programs, and suspended its 24-hour access area at the Grand Avenue location until further notice.
The Y has delayed the planned opening of the new Youth Center at 400 S. Maple St, although the new kitchen facilities at the Youth Center will prepare the meals for the distribution program.
“We’re looking at ways to help the community, and keep our employees employed, those who can continue to work,” Roberts said. “We don’t know how we’re funding this yet. We have been promised by individuals that they will take care of the bill. If people want to support it, they can donate to the Y, it’s tax-deductible, we’re a non-profit, and it will go toward these programs because that will be the only thing we’re doing.”
Roberts said one source of funding that he hopes will remain is the memberships already purchased by members.
He said he hopes the members will stick with the Y through this troubling time and not cancel their memberships even though they don’t have access to the facilities.
“If everyone cancels their membership because we’re closed, we can’t provide services like this child care, food programs, Easter at the Y, things like that that we make free to the public or extremely discounted because we can use membership dollars to offset that,” Roberts said. “Please stay with us during these hard times, you’re supporting a charity just like you would any other charity, you just usually get more out of your donation at the Y.”
