The Palmer United Methodist Church has partnered with the Families In Transition (FIT) program and three local schools to provide supplemental weekend nutrition to homeless and in-transition elementary and junior high students. PCF awarded the Weekend Lunch Bag Project two grants totaling $1750 to meet the growing need for the work they are doing in our community.
The goal of PUMC’s Weekend Lunch Bag Project is to support the physical, emotional, and academic health of homeless and in-transition students by providing a reliable source of weekend nutrition. “Hungry students struggle to focus… and are more likely to fall behind academically. We aim to keep the most at-risk students fed. We believe that this is the bare minimum standard for healthy communities: no student should go hungry.”
This program was initially designed to run during the school year with distribution happening at the schools. Due to COVID-19 school closures, PUMC needed to make some changes to their process. They are currently working with FIT families to develop a distribution plan for providing supplemental groceries throughout the summer.