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Nonprofit extends hand to hungry youth
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Published: June 14, 2009
A local nonprofit is doing its part to ensure local children are fed this summer.
Power Cross, a Christian athletic outreach program for young males, plans to offer the USDA Summer Feeding Program.
"We knew over the summer they (some children) would need something," said Natalie Storment, who co-founded Power Cross with her husband, Jeff.
Lunch will be served from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday, and a snack will be provided later in the afternoon.
The program — which is nationwide — will begin locally Monday and end Aug. 25. It will be held at the Power Cross facility at 1133 W. Front St. in Statesville.
The feeding program is free and open to any child between the ages of 5 and 18.
"Some of them don't have family or food around, so we're just going to fill that in," Natalie said.
About 200 children a day will be fed through the program, she said.
Statesville Middle School student Nakendrick Clark said he and his fellow Power Cross members will hang out in the new facility and eat lunch there this summer.
He said offering lunch is a good idea because some children may not eat otherwise.
"Some kids are unfortunate and don't get stuff at home and are in need," he said. "It provides stuff for them."
The meals the program offers follow USDA guidelines. Children must be served milk, fruit, vegetables, grain and meat.
Shakur Daye, 11, said Jeff and Natalie's providing of meals for children is a task not many people would take on.
"Nobody would probably do something like this but Jeff and Natalie," he said.
This is the first year meal offerings will fall under the USDA umbrella, but Power Cross has been feeding its boys since its inception three years ago.
There will be a bus picking up children between 11-11:20 a.m., with stops near Faith Childcare on Park Drive, in front of Statesville Middle School and Alice Cooper Park.
There will also be a backpack food program. Children will be given backpacks filled with food on Fridays and asked to return them on Mondays.
The backpacks will be filled with enough food to feed a family over the weekend.
TJ Storment said the new facility will not only be a place where kids can eat, but a place to go "where they can have a positive influence."
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