Hi! We are Lucas and Nik, the Columbus Academy Marketing interns for the New Albany Food Pantry this Summer. This past Sunday, we (along with the other NAFP interns Amiya and Spandana) were able to go into the pantry to help with our Summer Meals Program. While we were there, we helped put together the meal packages and we helped load our clients’ cars with all the different food items. We were able to provide nearly thirty families with meals for the week.
During our Summer Meals Program, we send home weekly pre-packaged meals (breakfast and lunch) to families with students who receive free/reduced meals during the school year. This program ensures that all NAPLS students have enough food during the summer months when resources may be limited. Our mission as a Pantry is to provide food to our neighbors in need, but this summer, we also want to address more systemic and structural issues, like the educational achievement gap which widens significantly during the summer. We are working to address this gap by sending home weekly learning activities along with our summer meals packages. Activities consist of crafts, books, educational magazines, games, and toys. When we helped out this week, we sent home a Fourth of July themed activity bag consisting of red and blue Jello, a USA States puzzle, a United States trivia game, and Crackerjacks. Our hope is that by sending home these activities, it will provide our families with something fun to do together that also provides an educational experience for the students.
In each food package, we sent home a variety of items such as milk, eggs, frozen meat, bread, fruits, and vegetables. The food we sent home with families came from sources such as Mid-Ohio Food Bank (where every $1 we spend can provide our families with up to $9 worth of groceries!), along with Cisco, and our generous community donors. When we were delivering the items on Sunday, our clients were kindly greeted and then the food was loaded into the back of their cars. The Summer Meals team has been working hard on perfecting their processes (which look much different this year due to the Coronavirus pandemic), so everything went quickly and smoothly!
As Marketing interns, this was our first time helping out in the Food Pantry. The Coronavirus pandemic has definitely changed what our internships look like this summer, but it was fun finally getting to be in the Pantry and doing some hands-on work assisting our clients.
Post written by Lucas and Nik