Family Lunch Program Now Supports 170 Children – SteinbachOnline.com

The soup kitchen in Steinbach has noticed a large increase in the number of families taking advantage of the Family Lunch Program.

Joy Neufeld says the program has more than doubled since the fall, with 53 families now coming each week to pick up enough food for school lunches and snacks to feed 170 children.

As needs increase, donations appear to be keeping up with demand.

“If the volunteers stop, if the money stops, our children go hungry,” Neufeld said. “And I think we understand that. I think the community understands that, so it won’t stop.”

There are between 25 and 30 volunteers who show up at Soup’s On every week for the lunch program.

She says no one wants to think about a child going hungry, and people in the Southeast are showing that they really care and will do what they have to do to care for the children.

“Just like the poverty keeps blowing me away, but the financial aid part is always there,” Neufeld says. “And it’s the $20 that kids bring me during the summer. It’s the $10 a grandparent gives me because their kids are part of the program, and I know that $10 hurts. That’s as valuable as $100 or $200 from a company. No matter how small it is, there is almost always a very special story attached to it. And so those donations are just as great as the businessman’s $1,000.”

She says between the school lunch program and the family lunch program, the soup kitchen distributes more than 800 pieces of fresh fruit and 900 packages of fresh vegetables in one week.

What is the difference between these two programs? In one program, families pick up lunch supplies each week and make lunch at home for their children to take to school. The other program brings lunch supplies to schools within the Hanover School Division and schools provide food to students who do not bring a full lunch.

To keep these programs running and keep pace with increasing need, financial donations are accepted. For more information about accessing the lunch programs and how you can support them, visit their website at steinbachsoupson.com.

As Neufeld continues to see the financial donations coming in at the soup kitchen, she notes, “we know how to feed our children. No child should go hungry.”