SCHENECTADY Free lunches for kids extended until school year starts BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Summer just got a little bit better for the city’s poorest children. The free lunch program will continue until school starts, giving children two more weeks of lunch than they ever had before. In past years, Schenectady Inner City Ministry didn’t have enough money or volunteers to feed children in the last weeks of August. But every year, SICM had to turn away hungry children who would show up at the lunch sites late in the summer, expecting food. This time, the children who bicycle all the way to Central Park or walked up the State Street hill to SICM’s office at the tail end of summer will get what they were expecting: a sandwich, a piece of fruit and a cold carton of milk. Dasia Murphy, 8, said she would go without lunch this week if it weren’t for the program. “I would be sitting somewhere starving,” she said, before confessing to a slight exaggeration. She could get food at home — but during the summer, she spends the entire day at the park, like many other children her age. That schedule gets a little uncomfortable near the end of August, when the lunch program closes down. She was thrilled to hear that it would continue until Labor Day weekend this year. “This is good because if somebody’s hungry and they’re at the park, they can get something to eat,” she said. Javier Sanchez, 11, added that while many children could go home for lunch, it’s too far to walk. “This is a quicker way than going home to do lunch,” he said. “And it’s a good idea for kids to eat healthy.” Plus, he said, some of his friends don’t have any food waiting for them if they do walk home. “They probably wouldn’t have nothing to eat,” he said. Parents applauded the lunch program extension as well. “I’ve never understood why they stop the first week of August,” said Karen Kirstein. “It’s really good for the kids that need it. They get free lunch during the school year and here, and then for two weeks, what do they eat?” SICM volunteers work hard to invite the entire community to lunch, not just those children who have no other way to eat lunch. The effort appears to have paid off — every child at the park playgrounds and pools lines up for lunch, so no children are stigmatized for needing the food. Children from Niskayuna eat with inner-city youths and children from the city’s richest neighborhoods. A few children eat and then get back into line to beg for leftovers, but most are not genuinely starving. “When you’re playing you might be hungry because there’s no food. I would still play but I’d be hungry,” said Thomas Carrington, 7. “If I was really, really, really hungry, I would go home.” The lunch sites that will be open for the last week of summer are: Christ Family Fellowship, 930 Albany St., 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Trinity Lutheran Church, 35 Furman St., 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. Central Park, noon to 1:15 p.m. Faith United Methodist Church, 811 Brandywine St., 12:15 ry Street, 11:40 a.m. to 12:55 p.m. p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Jerry Burrell Park, Schenecta-Yates Village Community dy Street, 11:50 a.m. to 1:05 p.m. Room, Van Vranken Avenue, 12:30 Mount Olivet Church, 809 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. Strong St., 12:05 p.m. to 1:20 p.m. Steinmetz Center, Emmons New Creation in Christ Street, 11:25 a.m. to 12:40 p.m. Church, 1073 Howard St., 12:30 MacGathan Townhouses, Jer- p.m. to 1:45 p.m. BARRY SLOAN/FOR THE DAILY GAZETTE From left, Thomas Carrington, 7, Dajour Murphy, 10, and Dasia Murphy, 8, all of Schenectady, enjoy their free lunches courtesy of the Schenectady Inner City Ministry in Central Park Thursday afternoon.
Dasia Murphy, 8, said she would go without lunch this week if it weren’t for the program. “I would be sitting somewhere starving,” she said, before confessing to a slight exaggeration. She could get food at home — but during the summer, she spends the entire day at the park, like many other children her age.
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“This is good because if somebody’s hungry and they’re at the park, they can get something to eat,” she said. Javier Sanchez, 11, added that while many children could go home for lunch, it’s too far to walk. “This is a quicker way than going home to do lunch,” he said. “And it’s a good idea for kids to eat healthy.”
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Children from Niskayuna eat with inner-city youths and children from the city’s richest neighborhoods. A few children eat and then get back into line to beg for leftovers, but most are not genuinely starving. “When you’re playing you might be hungry because there’s no food. I would still play but I’d be hungry,” said Thomas Carrington, 7. “If I was really, really, really hungry, I would go home.”
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