This service provides meals for children during Wichita’s spring break. It’s totally free
Wichita students can pick up five days worth of breakfast and lunches to eat during spring break through a Kansas Food Bank program, according to a Feb. 23 announcement.
The “Filling the Gap” program provides boxed meals for children ages 18 years or younger. The program is active during spring break, which is March 13-17 this year, and also at the end of the summer, right before the school year when the Wichita public schools’ summer food service program ends.
“That leaves a time when kids who rely on school means may not have access to food,” Debi Kreutzman, Kansas Food Bank’s community relations manager, said.
The program usually feeds 800 to 1,000 students during spring break.
Parents can stop by any of the pickup locations Monday, March 13 from noon to 1 p.m. to pick up the meals. The students have to be present in order to pick up the food.
“The food is all kid-friendly, easy to open and eat,” Kreutzman said. “Over the years we found, you know, certain things kids like better than others, so we always try to ... get food that kids like and they’re going to eat.”
The pickup locations are:
- Calvin Neighborhood Resource Center, 2820 S. Roosevelt
- Word of Life South, 2020 E. Blake
- Evergreen Neighborhood Resource Center, 2700 Woodland N.
- HealthCore Clinic, 2707 E. 21st St.
- Oaklawn Activity Center, 4904 S. Clifton
- Haysville United Methodist Church, 601 E. Grand
The goal of the program is to provide students with meals with absolutely no barriers.
“This is available to anyone, it’s not income based, kids don’t have to be receiving free and reduced meals at schools to receive this. Truly what we want to do is make it barrier-free and for families to have easy access,” Kreutzman said.
How to contribute to ‘Filling the Gap’
If you want to help the program, the Kansas Food Bank is still accepting donations.
“This program is privately funded, it’s not federally funded in any way by grants or anything, so we raise the money to pay for this,” Kreutzman said.
Donations can be made through the food bank’s website.
For questions about the program, call the Kansas Food Bank at 316-265-3663 or visit kansasfoodbank.org.
Note: This story was updated on March 13 at 12:16 p.m. to correct the address of the Evergreen Neighborhood Resource Center. The correct address is 2700 Woodland N.
This story was originally published March 8, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
