The Club’s FREE hot supper program returned this month and it came back in style. Finding a new Kitchen Manager was a long and exhaustive process, but the Club finally struck gold in Chef Dennis. Trained as a chef, Dennis is a Club parent and knows how to make restaurant quality food that the kids will love, and which hits all the USDA requirements for nutrition and quantity. In the first week the kids enjoyed homemade baked ziti with salad, fish sticks with homemade potato wedges (which were seasoned to perfection) and pepperoni pizza with salad.
Unfortunately the supper then got halted by the COVID-19 spike but it will be back with a vengeance next week.
The free hot supper program is funded by a USDA grant and donations from Team AWESOME. The grant also allows us to provide a free snack too. Currently the grant will reimburse us for our food costs but it doesn’t quite cover all our expenses, and that is why Team AWESOME donations are so essential. The grant allows us to provide a free meal and free snack to ANY child in the community who is under 18, or up to 19 if still in full time education.
Miss Ashley’s post about the free suppers was shared 38 times on social media and there were a number of inquiries from the community about how they can obtain a meal. Back in 2020 when we ran our drive-thru hot supper, we were able to do so because the grant gave us a waiver due to the lockdown. As we are now back to ‘normal’, the grant requires us to serve the food on our premises. The reason for doing this is to ensure that the food is being consumed by a child. However, with COVID raveging our community, we are currently only letting members inside the building. A catch-22!
Our solution is to ask any member of the community who wishes to be added to the hot supper count for the day, phone us by 1pm on 530 542 0838. We will then package that dinner up to-go and will use Team AWESOME donations to fund those meals. A child must be present to receive that meal and we respectfully request that masks are worn for the exchange with our front desk staff.
The Club is committed to ensuring every child who needs a meal can get one, and we have a list of available resources for families, such as the incredible Bread and Broth food distribution at St. Theresa’s Church, Phoenix Pantry and Christmas Cheer. Just ask at the front desk to get that list.
The free hot supper is only available at our main site as that is where our Kitchen Manager is based and where we have use of the kitchen. But a free after-school snack is served at the Bijou site and in cold weather months, those snacks are a mixture of hot and cold items. Thanks to an agreement with LTUSD, we will be able to continue the free snack and free supper program when we move into our building, as we will still have use of the Al Tahoe kitchen.
If you would like to donate a meal for a child in the community please visit bgclt.org/donate today!
