To the Editor:

The Community Lunch Program for Kids Norwood, Norfolk and Raymondville (CLPK) will be celebrating its fifth birthday this July! That’s right we have been assisting local families with school age children, who face food insecurity, for five years now!

In our first year, CLPK had two food distributions and started with just 24 families with 51 children. In 2020 we served the equivalent of over 33,151 meals over 16 food distributions to 121 unique families with 306 children.

So we think, this year’s theme, “You’ve Come Along Way, Baby!”, is most appropriate!

And though we are extremely proud of all of our accomplishments over the past five years, we realize that none of this would have been possible without the local churches, businesses, civic groups and individuals who support our program! That’s right! Without your support, we would just be a small group of people with big dreams!

CLPK has been affiliated with the Food Bank of Central New York since June

of 2017. This affiliation allows us to purchase nutritious food at low cost.

They also provide us with donated and USDA food (free food!!). The Food Bank of Central New York has recently requested that all food pantries provide 5 day’s worth of food (or 15 meals) per person, therefore we will be increasing the size of our food package from 10 meals to 15 meals per child.

In summary, we estimate that our food expenses for 2021 will be approximately $24,000.

In addition to our distributions of food every two weeks during the summer (starting in mid-June and running through the end of August), and over school breaks, we will be having our annual BACK2SCHOOL event for the almost 200 children in the CLPK program. Each school age child will receive new sneakers, a package of socks, a package of underwear, a

backpack, hygiene items, a brand new children’s book, and a mini homework kit, (which will provide school supplies to work on homework assignments at home) as well as a new winter coat.

So, once again this spring, we are asking for your support to continue our mission of feeding local children when school is not in session and they don’t have the “safety net” of the free/reduced breakfast/lunch program.

We will be most appreciative of any donation you would like to make! As always, every penny of every dollar you give, goes directly to the children.

Very few charitable organizations can say this! We have NO overhead! We are allowed the use of St. Raymond’s Church to store and distribute food at no cost. We have no paid staff, just a small army of volunteers who give generously of their time and talents. All other costs (transportation, mailing, copying, office supplies) are donated by our volunteers.

If you are interested in supporting CLPK in their mission of feeding local children who are food insecure when school is not in session, you can mail your check made out to CLPK to The Community Lunch Program for Kids 42 S. Main Street P.O.Box 225, Norwood, New York 13668.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 315.212.0520 or wchambers384@gmail.com.

We sincerely appreciate your kindness and generosity! We can accomplish great things by working together.

Wendy Chambers, director

CLPK Norwood, Norfolk, Raymondville