74°
Rotary President David Dolch, Leonias Schools Superintendent Joanne Megargee, Carlo Bundrick, Branch Manager & Asst. VP PNC Bank, Leonia
The Rotary Club of the Palisades plans to extend the program to its other two communities, Edgewater and Palisades Park.
“Such children are often left without adequate nutrition over weekends and holiday breaks,” Rotary Club President Dave Dolch said. “[The program] helps fill this gap by providing healthy, kid-friendly, and easy-to-prepare snacks that teachers discretely slip into the backpacks of participating children every Friday.”
The program was launched by a caring school nurse who noticed that certain students were showing up on Monday mornings suffering from stomach aches, dizziness, fatigue, and headaches — in short, signs of hunger.
After determining that those students were the same ones on the free or reduced-price school lunch program, she approached a local food pantry to find a way to supply those students with nutritious weekend snacks.
Carlo Bundrick, branch manager of the PNC Bank in Leonia, proposed funding the program to the bank’s upper management. All agreed it “was the right thing to do,” Bundrick said.
“This donation from PNC gave our club the jump start it needed to make this program happen,” said Dolch, the rotary president. “Without the support of PNC, the launch of this program was an ambitious dream. Now, with PNC’s generous donation in hand, this project has come to fruition.”
Together with the Center for Food Action, the Rotary Club of The Palisades already is set to make free or reduced-price school meals available during the week for pupils at Anna C. Scott Elementary School.
MORE: Contact Dave Dolch (phonedave@gmail.com).
{loadposition log}
Click here to follow Daily Voice Fort Lee and receive free news updates.
