Published: March 19, 2007 09:35 am            

Kid's cafe open at PCRC

The first Kids Cafe´ in northeastern Oklahoma opened at Pryor Creek Recreation Center Thursday.

The Kid’s Cafe´ will provide children with one meal and two snacks after school, breakfast during spring break, and two meals and one snack through the summer at no charge. The cafe´ will feed approximately 75 to 100 children ages eight to 18 each day. The cafe´ is in conjunction with The Boys & Girls Clubs of Green Country, which relocated to PCRC a year ago.

Green Country Boys & Girls Club consists of six clubs in Mayes County and four in Adair County, with 3,308 members. “The membership fees are $20 a year, however, no one is turned away,” said Ron Gurley Chief Professional Officer of Boys & Girls Clubs of Green Country.

The Kids Café was made possible through the partnership of The Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma, ConAgra Foods Feeding Children Better Foundation, America’s Second Harvest-The Nation’s Food Bank Network, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Green Country.

Hunger in Oklahoma is a real problem. Approximately 25,000 people a week receive help from emergency food programs. Of there, 76 percent have incomes below the federal poverty level.

Kids Cafe´ was formed in 1989 in Savannah, Ga., when the older of two brothers broke into the kitchen of the community center to feed himself and his brother. The Second Harvest Food Bank of Coastal Georgia responded by creating the first Kid’s Cafe´. Today the Kid’s Cafe´ is the nation’s largest charitable meal service program, striving to provide nutritious meals for children in need. Creating awareness and support for problems and solutions to childhood hunger in America is also one of their goals.

ConAgra Foods Feeding Children Better is the nation’s largest corporation dedicated solely to the elimination of childhood hunger in the United States. School lunches often are the only meals some children receive. Kids Cafe´ offers at risk children a free meal in a safe and nurturing atmosphere. Feeding Children Better is a multimillion-dollar, multi-year partnership with America’s Second Harvest, focusing on the elimination of childhood hunger in the United States. They strive to educate the public that hunger in children is often misdiagnosed as behavior or cognitive problems. ConAgra gets food to children through their Kid’s Cafe´s. They also recapture millions of pounds of food that would otherwise be lost or discarded. This allows America’s Second Harvest and other food-rescue organizations to move food faster, further, and cheaper.

America’s Second Harvest The Nation’s Food Bank is the largest charitable domestic hunger-relief organization in the United States, maintaining over 200 member food banks and food-rescue organizations in all 50 states, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. America’s Second Harvest distributed over 2,000,000,000 pounds of donated food and grocery products last year. The benefactors of this effort were 94,000 programs similar to the Kids Cafe´, providing food assistance to nine million children.

Children served by the Kids Cafe´ have reported, earning better grades, having more energy, better concentration, and feeling less grouchy. Parents reported that their children exhibited better physical health, improved learning and enhanced behavior.

Donations of time and or money to any of the above organizations would be appreciated.

The Boys & Girls Club occupies a 5,000 square-foot corner at PCRC. The Club was a major contributor in the construction and furnishing of the Center, for which they received a 99-year lease.

        

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