Hungry Hearts will return this summer to provide summer lunches but will be under new leadership.
After six years, the Salem Elks Lodge is returning the program to the Marion County YMCA which operated the program during its first year.
The Elk’s Mike Hooe says finances are behind the move.
“We’ve had run the program over the last 6 years through a grant we received from Elks National. Over the last six years, we received $45,000 from them to run the program and now that grant has run out. When it ran out we were looking for a new group to run the program. Somebody who could take the program and do a better job at fundraising. The Elks is not a great fundraising organization. We are much better at raising grant money.”
Hooe says the program has been extremely popular, providing 48,000 meals, 8,000 books, and 700 drug awareness backpacks during the past six years.
The YMCA’s Jed Casburn believes they can financially support the totally free program for kids.
“Each year the YMCA does their annual campaign from January to March so that’s how those things would go. Each year that would be our goal. We got a lot of different community support lines we like to help and we want to help Hungry Hearts also.”
Casburn is thanking the Elk’s for all the hard work and dedication they have provided to the program.
The new program leader will be Marilyn Lewis.
“Just to keep it running just the way it is. We started it 13 years ago in Hamilton County and I came up here and talked to the YMCA and helped them when they got started.”
Lewis started the Hamilton County program after seeing kids looking through dumpsters in the summer for food. She reports all of the groups that have signed up for a week to prepare and distribute the meals are back with one new addition.
As in the past, a separate Hungry Hearts program will provide meals to Iuka Grade School students.
The Elks has already purchased some items for this summer and are leaving $5,000 in seed money for this year. Lewis says until a fundraising campaign can be held next spring, the Grace United Methodist Church has agreed to cover any shortfalls as part of their ongoing support.
Meals will be made available to students starting the Tuesday after Memorial Day, with weekday lunches provided until school resumes for the fall. Watch for more information on the drop-off locations and times near the start of this summer’s program.
