Starting Monday, students in five Lakeville neighborhoods needing a healthy lunch, will be able to have one delivered for free through the Open Door hunger relief organization.
Partnering with All Saints Catholic Church, Rudy’s Redeye Grill, Lakeville Brewing, Barley and Vine, Buffalo Wild Wings, and a local Subway restaurant, Open Door, through its Mobile Lunchbox program, will begin delivering 250 meals a day.
“Access to meals when schools are out is always a challenge for low-income families,” said Jason Viana, Executive Director of The Open Door. “With the cancellation of summer programs and modified summer school offerings due to COVID, we knew this summer would be the most challenging yet for families.”
The Mobile Lunchbox normally works directly with kitchens in the school district to provide meals through their existing summer offerings, but this summer there were no kitchens open in the Lakeville Area Schools system, leaving the organization looking for other options.
All Saints Catholic Church volunteered to use its staff and commercial-grade kitchen to prepare 250 meals two days each week, and The Lakeville Chamber and Visitors Bureau worked with members of the Lakeville Rotary to put together a group of local restaurant partners to fill the remaining gap.
“It was a pleasure working with the Open Door and the Lakeville restaurant community to help support this needed summer lunch program for Lakeville students,” said Jeanne Hutter, Vice President of the Lakeville Chamber of Commerce & Tourism. “We are grateful and proud of our area restaurants who stepped up during these most difficult times to make arrangements to meet the needs of our community quickly and cost-effectively.”
The five neighborhoods were chosen in partnership with Lakeville Area Schools staff who identified the neighborhoods with the highest concentration of students and families in need of food support.
The Open Door is committing $50,000 in funds to support the purchase of meals directly from restaurant partners.
This summer the Mobile Lunchbox program will deliver meals five days a week to 18 different Dakota County neighborhoods from Independent School Districts 191, 196, and 194. They anticipate serving more than 30,000 meals.
Before the COVID pandemic, The Open Door served an average of 7,000 people each month in Dakota County. They served nearly 10,000 people in the first 30 days of their crisis response, and more than 18,000 people in the month of May.
“This partnership is a bright spot for the community in a really difficult time,” Viana said.
For information on delivery sites in other neighborhoods, go online to theopendoorpantry.org.
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June 21, 2020 at 01:53AM
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Open Door’s Mobile Lunchbox program expands to five Lakeville neighborhoods - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
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