By James Menaker | Executive Director
6,520
In the past twelve months, Joel's Place has served 6,520 meals for free to the youth of our community. We are members of a couple of USDA programs (the Summer Food Service Program and the Child and Adult Care Food Program for those of you who were curious) that will reimburse our organization for after-school meals that we provide to teenagers and young children in high-risk neighborhoods. This reimbursement allows us to employ our phenomenal kitchen staff, purchase food and cover other cooking expenses. The meals are hot, nutritious and did I mention free? Some of the food that we serve fits into what they eat every day: spaghetti, pizza, etc. However some of the meals push our kids a little bit. Chicken stir-fry with veggies is delicious...once you are able to get over the fact that you are eating vegetables. The goal of the program is to both give healthy meals to youth who may not be getting enough to eat at home and to teach positive nutrition habits through trying new foods or familiar foods prepared in different ways.
Food is a huge issue among kids in America, especially Alaska. Many school-age kids are underfed...the meal that they have here at Joel's Place may be the only food they have during the day. Hungry kids are bad students. They are unresponsive. They have horrible social skills. Hungry kids do not think about the future because they are wrapped up in finding something to eat. Hungry kids will eat anything...especially if it is quick and easy and cheap. Hello, Fast Food and Vending Machines. Childhood obesity is reaching epidemic proportions in our state. Kids are eating a ton of empty calories and suffering serious health problems as a result. It is so easy in Alaska to just stay indoors all winter and be sedentary and a lot of youth just get bigger and bigger and bigger as the years go on.
Fighting obesity requires 3 things: Healthy Food, Exercise and Mentoring/Education. Joel's Place provides all three. Our meals are USDA certified. The skate park allows year round exercise and training. Our staff will sell you a candy bar from the front desk, but they will also accompany you into the cafe to have dinner and make sure you clean your plate. We had several community members teach afternoon courses this summer on healthy eating and nutrition. In the two years that I have been on this job, there are a handful of boys who I have met who began coming to Joel's Place as roly-poly little guys. They have skated; they have grown; they have eaten well and now they are big, healthy young men. I am really proud of that and hope I get to see that story played out over and over again.
3,520. That is a really good number.
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