Started by a group of local women, Feed the Children—a grassroots program that provides healthy meals, snacks and nutrition education to underserved kids in the community—needs volunteers to sustain the program and help the group reach its goals of being able to deliver in more communities and of offering hands-on cooking demonstrations and edible pot gardens.

Each summer, 22 million students are at risk of going hungry when the school year ends and school lunches are no longer available, according to Beth Romanski, coordinator of Feed the Children. For many children, school meals are the only complete and nutritious meals they eat, and in the summer they go without. Romanski says Feed the Children is unlike government-subsidized summer lunch programs, because it operates through the efforts of volunteers. “We do not have the red tape to go through, so we can be flexible to the individual needs of the communities we serve, which has really made a difference,” she explains.

The program runs through the end of August and needs additional volunteers to provide weekly meals for two communities of 25 kids. “The role of a volunteer is very convenient, because they can work it in with their busy summer schedules,” explains Romanski. “Once a volunteer picks a date, I provide the Healthy Menu Grocery List and/or Healthy Kid-Friendly Recipe, and all they have to do is drop it off at Apple Tree Farm, in Hummelstown, by 11 a.m. on that day.”

For more information, call 717-482-8391, email [email protected] or visit GivingTreeofHummelstown.org.