Alaska News

Aiming to feed hundreds of hungry Alaska children, Children's Lunchbox hopes to expand

Each day, dozens of tiny little heads barely poke over the stainless steel counter of the Muldoon Boys and Girls Club kitchen, excited to get their next meal.

Laura Hahn is in charge of that, single-handedly running the kitchen. She serves up giant cans of cubed pineapple and pounds and pounds of baby carrots. She knows the likes and dislikes of many of the kids who pass by her counter, carrying away plates full of bean dip and tortilla chips or turkey sandwiches or plates of spaghetti covered with meat sauce. Some are shy and gingerly peek over the top. Others are tall and gregarious, not afraid to voice distain over their dislike of cherry tomatoes or the sour cream in the dip.

But Hahn is patient, nudging them to give it a try on a rainy Friday afternoon, reminding them to wash their hands and making sure they're acting appropriately. No yelling, no bad jokes, no teasing. She checks in with them, asking some kids with frowns on their faces whether they're OK as she hands them heaping plates bigger than their heads.

Hundreds of meals per day

Those little gestures are just a small part of the job Hahn has in feeding hundreds of needy children each day as the kitchen manager at facility. The kitchen is run as part of the Children's Lunchbox, the Bean's Cafe program that distributes hundreds of meals to low-income and at-risk children in Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Valley.

Hahn alone prepares hundreds of meals a day -- dozens of sack lunches that are delivered to programs in the community, plus feeding 50 to 70 kids lunch and dinner at the Boys and Girls Club.

The meals meet federal child nutrition guidelines and are eligible for federal reimbursement. But parts of The Children's Lunchbox program are not eligible for reimbursement. That's something executive director Lisa Sauder hopes to fix.

According to figures from the program, 22,000 Anchorage children are "at risk" of not having access to enough food. Last year, the Children's Lunchbox served 200,000 meals to 3,000 kids. But Sauder would like to do more.

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5 schools hosting

This year, the program's weekend lunch program is expanding into Williwaw Elementary. That boosts the total number of schools hosting the program to five. All of the schools eligible for federal funds under the Title I program have lots of children eligible for free or reduced lunch -- in some cases 100 percent of the kids enrolled.

A weekend program serves as a stop-gap for kids who already receive most of their lunches from school food-service programs. Sauder said the weekend program, which has been in existence for the last four years, came about after lunch workers at Mountain View Elementary noticed that children were coming to school Mondays desperate for extra breakfast. They realized that for many needy students, there wasn't enough food at home for them on Saturday and Sunday.

So each weekend, starting this school year, the program will send out 2,600 "backpacks" (actually plastic sacks) full of food, all of which is shelf-stable -- cans of soup, vegetables, packets of oatmeal. It's generally enough to cover three or four meals.

Sauder said while most of the children's lunchbox meals are eligible for the federal reimbursement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the weekend lunches are not. It's an issue the program has tried to take up with lawmakers.

"If they're hungry Monday through Friday, they're going to be hungry on the weekend, too," Saunders said.

$102 covers one child for school year

With a new school seeking meals, Children's Lunchbox is looking for additional support. Already, two schools have been "adopted" by grant foundations – the Wal-Mart Foundation and a partnership between ConocoPhillips and AlaskaUSA Credit Union. But programs cost $40,000 per school -- or $120,000 for all three yet-to-be adopted schools. Saunders said Children's Lunchbox is looking to secure more permanent grant funding, but accepta donations. Sauder said it costs $102 for one child to have weekend meals for the entire school year.

It's a small part in the larger picture of making sure children in Anchorage who need food, are able to get it.

The programs "are feeding their souls and not just their tummies," Sauder said. "It's to show that the entire community cares about them."

Contact Suzanna Caldwell at suzanna(at)alaskadispatch.com

Suzanna Caldwell

Suzanna Caldwell is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch News and Alaska Dispatch. She left the ADN in 2017.

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