By Austin Rust-
A curbside meal service is now available to Adams County children (age 18 and younger) at the Adams County Public Library locations in Manchester, West Union, Peebles, and Seaman. Made possible by a partnership between the Adams County Public Libraries and the Children’s Hunger Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending childhood hunger, local children can pick up five balanced, shelf-stable meals each week from their nearest library through this program.
Children, parents, and caregivers who come to pick up meals are asked to call the library branch they are visiting upon arrival for curbside service. Children (aged 18 and younger) will receive a bag of five balanced meals to last the week. The library branches will provide this service once a week from noon- 3 p.m. on Tuesdays (Manchester), Wednesdays (West Union), Thursdays (Peebles), and Fridays (North Adams). These meals are provided by the Children’s Hunger Alliance.
“We started an afterschool meal program this spring, but had to stop that temporarily, so we have just been waiting, and we thought it may be safe to resume some kind of meal service,” Nicholas Slone, Executive Director of the Adams County Public Library explained. “Curbside looks more and more like the safest option for both library service and providing meals for the time being.”
“We’re excited,” Slone continued. “We have been trying to do a summer food service for the past few years – (a program) during the summer months to coincide with summer reading. We heard that the Children’s Hunger Alliance was seeking out places where meals could be distributed, and I said we’d love to be a part of it. They’ve worked with us ever since. They have been extremely helpful and easy to work with from the beginning. It’s a really helpful service, because they provide shelf-stable meals and snacks that the kids really seem to enjoy. Our afterschool meals in the spring were working out great, and we were disappointed that we had to stop them when we did, but we’re really happy to be able to begin this type of meal service again.”
This curbside meal service will run each week from now until Aug. 14, Slone concluded.