As we move into the second half of our Celina Summer Feeding Program, I just wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU to our incredible community for making this program such a huge success!

Every week, we continue to see more and more families participating, and it is truly amazing to watch our community come together to make sure no child goes hungry during the summer months. Your support means more than you know.

A very special thank you goes to Celina Arby’s for their incredible kindness on June 30th. They surprised our entire summer feeding team by donating and delivering large beverages to every staff member. That day was one of the hottest we’ve experienced this summer, and their thoughtful gesture meant so much to our team. We are incredibly grateful for businesses like Arby’s that support those serving our community.

I’d also like to address a couple of issues from the past two weeks.

First, I want to sincerely apologize for the strawberries that were distributed during the week of June 30th. When we packed them on Monday morning, they looked great. We honestly don’t know exactly what happened between packing and distribution, but the only explanation we can think of is the brief amount of time they spent in the heat while waiting to be loaded into vehicles. We are making adjustments to our process this week and hope to prevent any issues with strawberries going forward.

I also want to apologize to the families who were still in line on July 7th when we ran out of meals. We had been advised to lower our meal count because participation typically drops in July. Instead, we experienced the exact opposite, and our community showed up in record numbers! While running out of meals is never what we want, it is also a testament to how needed this program is. We have already increased the number of meals we will prepare for July 14th and hope this will allow us to serve everyone who comes through the line.

Finally, thank you for making this program such an overwhelming success. Summer feeding is a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes. My staff and I give up a large part of our summer break to make this program possible, but we do it because we know how important it is to the children and families in our community. Seeing thousands of meals go out each week reminds us that every early morning, every hot afternoon, and every long day is worth it.

As a reminder, our final meal distribution of the summer will be Monday, July 21st. If your family is eligible and hasn’t participated yet, there’s still time! We would love to serve you over these final two distributions.

Thank you for your patience, your kindness, and your continued support. We look forward to seeing everyone again this coming week!

Marissa Coil
Director of Food Services