Meal Pick-Up Nourishes Local Kids

Contributed by: Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee

When COVID-19 forced Milwaukee Public Schools to close their doors, many worried kids would go hungry without school-provided breakfasts and lunches. To help ensure kids are fed, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee is providing meal pick-up service on Mondays from 11am to 3pm at three of our locations around the city. These locations are the Daniels-Mardak Club, Don & Sallie Davis Club and LaVarnway Club.

Our volunteers ask parents or caregivers how many kids (18 and under) they need meals for when they arrive at our pick-up locations. They are then provided with enough breakfasts, lunches and dinners to last an entire week. These meals include cereal, French toast, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, turkey sandwiches, hamburgers, cut-up vegetables and fruit – things kids like but are also healthy. We also provide milk – often an entire crate per family.

To date, we have served more than 28,000 meals. This would not be possible without our wonderful volunteers – most of whom normally work full-time or part-time at our club locations. They see these kids every day during the school year and want to make sure the kids have what they need – and there’s nothing more important than having enough food to eat.

But during this time, people – both volunteers and those picking up meals – are concerned about staying safe and doing what they can to avoid exposure to the virus. To help protect everyone, we are making sure social distancing recommendations are followed and all volunteers are wearing masks and gloves. We use about 50 masks and gloves across our three locations every week. They are hard to come by right now, but we’ve been fortunate to receive donations from our volunteers, community partners and local business.

One such business is Cobalt Partners. The Milwaukee-based real estate firm recently donated a few hundred heavy-duty, construction-grade masks after learning we were serving thousands of meals to people in some of the neighborhoods with the highest outbreaks of COVID-19 and were low on personal protective equipment. They decided to donate these masks to help us stay safe.

“As a development firm, our company is committed to building and enhancing our local communities,” said Scott Yauck, president and CEO of Cobalt Partners. “So when we saw the opportunity to assist those who not only volunteer their time, but also stand at the front line to provide nutritious meals to those who may be vulnerable, we immediately delivered our supply of masks to help protect those incredible volunteers.”

We are so grateful to Cobalt Partners for their continued support.