A Summer Kickoff for the Healthy Meal Program

YMCA CEO Brad Toft and Toledo Councilwoman Vanice Williams

By Angie Hayes
The Truth Reporter

The Summer Kickoff Event was held on June 1 at Wayman Palmer YMCA with Connecting Kids To Meals, an event that Summer Meal Partners of Northwest Ohio all participated in and assisted in the hosting process

The Summer Kickoff event was open to the community to provide the information for educational and fun activities that are available this summer and to ensure the public is aware of the free healthy meals available for kids in specific locations in the environment.

Numerous public speakers and participants were present at the Summer Kickoff Event, to support the community and the Connecting Kids To Meals Program including: Samia Hamdan, USDA Midwest Regional Office, Child Nutrition director; Erika Krause, Senator Sherrod Brown’s Office; Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur’s office, Tina Skeldon Wozniak: Lucas County Board of Commissioners; Vanice Williams, Toledo City councilwoman, James Gant, deputy superintendent TPS; Jason Kucsma, executive director Toledo Lucas Count Public Library, Brad Toft: CEO YMCA.

The  event full of opportunities, information and fun times. Raffles for kids’ bikes, adult prizes, and teenager bikes also were part of the festivities.

Monday through Friday, free meals are provided for kids. The mission of Connecting Kids To Meals is to provide nutritious meals to kids in the community, at no cost.

Kids in the community can struggle with hunger issues. Connecting kids to meals has served the community/kids for many years; 19 years of commitment to the community, to feed the kids in need.

Children must fulfill the nutritional needs to support their grow and development in both body and mind.   Connecting Kids To Meals supports the growth with free nutritional food; to solve the hunger issues in the atmosphere!

To support Connecting Kids To Meals, speakers asked the public to share the information about the needs of the atmosphere and the effort of the program. Volunteers and financial support will help and meet the needs of the kids in the community.

ALL KIDS CAN GET FREE MEALS MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY AND WEEKEND MEALS PROVIDED ON FRIDAYS. Monday through Friday, meals must be eaten on site and locations can be found at WWW.CONNECTINGKIDSTOMEALS.ORG.