Operation Food Chain Sets Up at the East Field Pavilion, and is Looking to Serve More Kids!
Just a few minutes before noon, a grandmother and two young children wandered towards the pavilion at East Field… The sun was high overhead, and the deep shade of the pavilion was a welcome respite. “Which direction will the truck come from Grandma?” asked both of the children excitedly. She looked up from her phone and glanced around… “I don’t know… It’s a van, so it could really come from any direction,” she replied as the kids looked around excitedly in all directions. “It’s here! It’s here!” The young children yelled as, at last, a white van approached the pavilion! Another grandmother with young children wandered under the pavilion, older siblings walked up with their younger siblings, and a young teen with a wiffleball bat joined the small crowd gathering by the van for a free meal.
Monday through Friday, from July 3rd through August 18th, from 12:00 to 12:30 PM, Operation Food Chain – in conjunction with Warren County Summer Youth Employment Program – will hand out free lunches to any youth 18 and under at the East Field Pavilion.
Chef Matt Young is a Culinary Arts instructor at BOCES in Hudson Falls, and has been involved in the program for 10 years. He gained the attention of the small crowd that had gathered: “The only thing that’s different from last year is that you have to eat it here this year, you can’t take it with you,” Chef Young said to the small crowd.
This program provides a sandwich, a salad, and a fruit Monday through Friday, and on Wednesdays, they provide a hot lunch. This year, the meals are prepared at Sanford Street School… In years past, the meals have been assembled at the BOCES Facility in Hudson Falls, which is currently under construction.
Chef Matt is an Alumni of the Culinary Arts and Hospitality Program at BOCES, where he now works: “Warren County pays for the kids, BOCES provides a location and Community Action provides the food,” he said, as he instructed the teen workers on how to set up for the event. “The program started about twenty or thirty years ago, and its main focus was for the Rec Center. There had been a Rec Center and about 40 to 50 kids would come over here to grab lunch… Then, because of COVID, the Rec Center couldn’t find staff, and the following year it didn’t open. So we had to find another site… So we went to the Village Green Apartments, and we ended up actually serving there and here last year… We did roughly forty-five lunches a day between the two locations. That was when the COVID regulations were in place and you could ‘grab and go’ – now, we are back to the normal USDA, New York State requirements, so the kids have to eat the lunch here and then we throw away the garbage,” Chef Young said, while the kids sat around the picnic tables and enjoyed their lunch.
“We are still hoping to serve about forty or forty-five kids… We just need the kids to come here. We do it every year, put it out on FaceBook every year, flyers, and we need people to come here. One of the issues is transportation, it can be hard to get here… Word of mouth could get more kids to come.” Chef Young said.