Archive: Around Town

On October 1st the YMCA of Ithaca & Tompkins County began serving meals each week day thanks to three grants received from the Y of the USA and the Walmart Foundation.  The $25,000 grant will provide full, healthy meals for children, as well as equipment and staff to prepare the meals.

"They're excited about trying vegetables," says the Y's Associate Executive Director Teresa Moorehouse.  "They will come home having had something in their lunch at school, and they will ask 'is this HEPA compliant?'  They ask that question.  It's the coolest thing.  The food  involves the elements of dairy with non-fat milk, vegetables, fruits, lean protein, and whole grains.  Considerable research has been done to ensure the food procured has no added sugars or fats, only health for our kids."

The after school program has been run at the local Y since the mid 1990s.  The program serves working parents who can't leave work to pick up their kids when school lets out.  Each afternoon participants spend about two and a half ours in the program.  Sessions include a free period, reading time, homework time, group game time, including 45 minutes to an hour of physical activity.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) says approximately 22 million children and teens under age 18 can't count on a daily meal.  The Y had already been providing snacks, partially reimbursed by a federal program, for children in the after school and summer camp programs.

"We bumped it up to a meal," Morehouse says.  "In our area at least 50% of our school districts are eligible for partial or free lunch programs.  That in itself makes us eligible."

Morehouse applied for four grants, and received three of them, adding up to $25,000.  The money will help the Y serve 33,500 meals and snacks to 100 kids at the Ithaca branch on Graham Road, around 40 at Groton Elementary school for grades 1-6 and pre-K ages 4-5, and more than 20 at the Cassavant Elementary school in McLean.  This summer the Y will serve a snack and a meal up to 100 children for 10 weeks at its summer camp.

While there is a tuition for the program, some children are granted scholarships through the local Y or social services.  But all kids receive the snack and meal, without being singled out as not being able to afford it.

"The whole idea of this was an initiative of Walmart to provide food for children," Morehouse says.  "Secondarily over the years it was to provide healthy food in addition to physical activity.  Now they've stepped it up even more, saying one out of six kids do not receive a meal a day.  It's what we promote anyway, spirit, mind, and body health.  Children are all on the same level.  There is no food inequity.  That's where it all started from."


The Y is also involved in the Healthy Eating and Physical Activity (HEPA) initiative, which ensures that the elements of low fat, no sugar-added, healthy foods are served in a communal, family format that encourages fellowship and educational involvement in the process.  Moorehouse says she hopes to attract more sponsors to augment the healthy meals provided by the grant. 

"The food served involves the elements of dairy with non-fat milk, vegetables, fruits, lean protein, and whole grains.  Considerable research has been done to ensure the food procured has no added sugars or fats, only health for our kids," she says. "We also include 45-60 minutes of physical activity each day, as both healthy eating and physical activity promotes total health".

Moorehouse says that between the after school program and summer camp, meals will be served five days a week every week, year 'round, with no lapses.

"It's a spectacular thing to us because we're doing something that we really want to do," Ithaca Y CEO Frank Towner says.  "Theresa really believes in what we do, I believe in what we do, our staff does.  But sometimes we're limited by the money.  So this is a big plus."

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