Serving Community with Meals for Kids

On March 18, we started serving curbside meals to kids in partnership with Aramark and the Fond du Lac School District. To date, we have served over 7,000 meals from different locations throughout the community! Special THANKS to the Fondy Food Pantry for providing Food for Thought bags, Badger Soft Water for donating several cases of bottled water, Baker Cheese for a bunch of string cheese to include in lunches at our Johnsonville location, Chegwin Elementary teachers for their donation of books to hand out and Lori Muentner from the Fond du Lac Fire Department for dropping off Dairy Queen free meal coupons this week! And of course, we need to thank our Club staff who have been working hard through this challenging time with smiles on their faces each and every day! We are SO grateful to be able to continue serving our community in this capacity… it takes a village and we are making it happen!

We asked a couple of our staff who have been serving meals every day to share their experience with us. Eric Pantojas, Boys & Girls Club healthy lifestyles coordinator, stated “I have really enjoyed being a part of this effort! It’s definitely not the same as being in the building with all of our kids but we are really making a difference for people in the community. I love giving people lunch and seeing the emotion when we are helping is incredible. The big smiles that we get to see on the parents’ and kids’ faces are priceless. It’s hard to put into words how positive this impact is for myself. It is important during this time we are being kept apart that we find ways to ‘stay together’ and this program is helping in that aspect.”

Bradey Resulta, Boys & Girls Club program aide, added “When I got the job at the Club my sophomore year of college, I had no idea what I was signing up for. A lot of people think of my job as a ‘glorified babysitter’. And every time we provide for the community in the ways that we do, I know in my heart that it is so much more than that. When I was given the opportunity to work as a food distributor during the COVID-19 pandemic, I was grateful because giving back to the community is ultimately what this job is all about. I was, and still am, willing to do whatever I can. However, I didn’t realize how important food distribution was going to be to some families. All of the families express how grateful they are, every day. At first, it felt like I was providing a minimalist effort. It felt like I wasn’t doing enough. However, one day my perspective changed when a mother started crying and explaining how she had lost her job the week before. She relies on these lunches, as do many of the families we serve. The gratitude I receive and the reactions that I witness prove that even the smallest effort can impact someone largely. Every little thing we do in our lives is destined to be a part of something bigger.”