East Washingtonian - Your Hometown News Source

By Jessica Nelson

POMEROY–The “Free Summer Lunch, Breakfast and Weekend Program” starts June 18 and runs through August 28. Kids 18 and younger can come by the Nazarene Church daily, Monday through Friday, from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., to pick up their breakfast and lunch items for the day. Each Friday, weekend backpacks will be available as well during this time. No signups or payments needed.

When the COVID-19 Pandemic sent kids home in a “Stay at Home” order on March 13, Pomeroy Elementary School started providing “School Lunches” for families and will continue to do so until the end of the school year, June 17.

This summer, the families of Garfield County will have the opportunity to receive breakfast, lunch and weekend meals for their kids with the generous help from the Nazarene Church, Holy Rosary Backpack Program, Garfield County Health District and the South East Washington Alliance for Health.

Seeing the extreme need to continue helping families through this difficult time, an extension of the “Free Summer Lunch Program”, originally started and now continued by the Pomeroy Nazarene Church, was developed. New to the program this year is breakfast every day and a “Weekend Backpack Program” that provides enough breakfast and lunch meals for the weekend.

The Pomeroy Nazarene Church has been serving kids 18 years and younger with free meals in the summer for seven years. To date, over 12,000 meals have been given out to kids throughout the summer, helping families all over the county. Volunteers from the Nazarene Church, as well as community and church members all work together to make and serve lunches weekdays during the summer.

Jayci Field, Nazarene Church Secretary, described the need for our community stating, “We know during this difficult time that a little extra help would be appreciated. This would be a continuation of what close to 60 kids are receiving during the school year from school lunches.”

With the help of the South East Washington Alliance for Health, Group Health Foundation Fund, breakfast was made possible to be provided daily. In addition, an extension of the “Weekend Backpack Program”, that has been run by the Holy Rosary for the last six years, usually only during the school year, will be available throughout the summer. Kathy Feider leads the “Weekend Backpack Program” and said, “With all that’s going on this spring and summer, we are glad to have our group operate through the summer. We look forward to partnering with the Nazarene church again to help families, and are very grateful for the additional grant money to help with expenses for the summer program.” Feider, along with the Holy Rosary Church, several community churches, a number of people in the community and several foundations that have contributed funding, help out with the Weekend Backpack Program.

Educational materials will also be provided by the Garfield County Health District to help families stay healthy and safe this summer. Materials of healthy recipes, educational materials and fun giveaways will be given out once a week all summer until school resumes in the fall.

Anyone wanting to volunteer to help serve meals, please contact The Nazarene Church at 509-843-1075 or [email protected].