Post from Community: Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee surpasses 100,000 meals served to Milwaukee youth | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Boys & Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee
May 11, 2020
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On Monday, May 11, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee (BGCGM) will reach a major milestone in our meal distribution program: surpassing 100,000 meals distributed to Milwaukee’s youth during the COVID-19 pandemic, a marked example of how BGCGM is committed to serving the needs of youth in Milwaukee’s most under-resourced communities especially during times of crisis.
“At the beginning of this health crisis, we had no idea what this journey would look like. We just knew that we had to pivot quickly to continue taking care of Milwaukee’s youth just like we have been for the past 133 years,” said BGCGM President and CEO, Kathy Thornton-Bias. “We knew that without the traditional Club experience, youth would still need to depend on us for a sense of security, especially when it came to nutrition.”
Providing nutritious meals is not something new for BGCGM. The Clubs serve nearly 1 million healthy meals and snacks to Club kids each year to ensure those who are food insecure are properly nourished. The meal distribution program BGCGM launched at the beginning of this health crisis, however, has required our Clubs to work under unprecedented circumstances. We had to quickly build a large-scale program that served not only our Club members but all Milwaukee youth who needed us. We implemented stringent safety measures like requiring staff members to wear masks and gloves. As the severity of the health crisis grew, we quickly modified our program to distribute food just once per week in an effort to reduce the number of trips families had to make outside their homes and reduce contact between Clubs staff and the families we serve, and we have continuously increased our supply of food as the need for food assistance increases in Milwaukee. These efforts are a reflection of BGCGM’s commitment to do whatever it takes to ensure kids in under-resourced Milwaukee communities thrive academically, socially, and personally, especially during times of crisis.
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Families can visit one of the following BGCGM Clubs distributing meals every Monday from 11:00 am – 3:00 pm or while supplies last. Each family is provided with three meals per day for seven days for each child 18 and under in their home for a total of 21 meals per child.