With help from teens, Boys & Girls Clubs served thousands of meals this summer

On a recent Tuesday morning, a handful of teens worked busily at tables inside the Carroll C. Kendall Boys & Girls Club in Sequim, placing food items into opened white paper bags. The selection was nutritious and substantial. Italian sub sandwiches. Snack-sized bags of snap peas. Fruit cups.

Milk cartons, regular and chocolate, were lined up on the tables like soldiers waiting to be deployed. They would be placed into coolers and then carried to the vehicles of volunteer drivers. From there, they would be distributed to children at Carrie Blake Community Park, Greywolf Elementary School, and the Elk Creek, Mountain View Court and SeaBreeze apartment complexes. Some of the lunches were distributed there at the Boys & Girls Club.

As that day’s lunch items were being placed into bags, Child Nutrition Director Kat Malcom was in the nearby commercial kitchen preparing the next day’s meal: chicken enchilada wraps. With so many lunches to distribute, preparation must be done the day before, Malcolm explained.

At the Turner Unit Boys & Girls Club in Port Angeles, the same daily ritual took place this summer as part of the Summer Food Service Program. Distribution sites included Jefferson Elementary School, Dream (Erickson) Park, Shane Park and Evergreen Family Village.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula is a sponsor of the program, providing nutritious meals to children when school is not in session. Free meals that meet federal nutrition guidelines are provided to all children 18 and under at approved SFSP sites in areas with significant concentrations of low-income children.

For the youngest employees of the Boys & Girls Club, filling the bags was just one of their duties this summer. They also helped distribute the lunches.

Although the program is overseen by adults, it serves as workforce training for teens. Those who want the job must apply for the paid positions and go through an interview process. Once hired, they work 25-30 hours per week during their summer break.

“They have to interview (and) they have to complete a resume,” said Sara Maloney, director of philanthropy for the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula. “They have to have their food handler’s permit. This is a true work experience. They have to be reliable. They have to turn up every day. They have to complete a number of Boys and Girls Cubs of America trainings to make sure that we’re protecting youth that they might come into contact with. This is an actual, serious position.”

Siblings Arrow and Isaac Hedgecomb are two of the Sequim location’s teen employees. Arrow, 17, is a senior at Sequim High School and prefers they/them pronouns. This was their fourth summer as a paid Boys & Girls Club employee. Isaac, 15, is a sophomore. This was his second summer to help feed kids.

“When I first started doing it, I wanted to be more involved in the Club because (I was) here for so many years and I was like, you know what, I think I should try to give back to my community,” said Arrow, who hopes to join the U.S. Air Force and eventually work in the medical field.

Isaac said that most of the kids who received the meals were “really grateful,” but he fears that some who needed a meal were too embarrassed or shy to venture from their homes.

According to Maloney, more than 16,000 meals and snacks were dispersed during the months of June and July alone. The Gazette did not receive numbers for August by press time.

“When children qualify for free or reduced lunch at school, when the schools are not in session, that means they are not receiving lunch at school,” Maloney said. “And so, we help bridge that gap, and we have 11 sites between Sequim and Port Angeles that we take food to.

“We prepare the food in our central kitchens here and at our club in Port Angeles, and then we have a distribution and we take the food to where our kids are. These are free meals to any child under the age of 18, and you do not have to prove need to be served a meal. You just come.”

Isaac, who has been a member of the Boys & Girls Club since he was in kindergarten or first grade, said he has enjoyed interacting every day with kids he encountered at the distribution sites. And he has also enjoyed working an actual job.

“I really like it,” he said. “It makes me feel a little more independent.”

The Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula offer a variety of services for youth ages 6-18. The Sequim site, located at 400 W. Fir St., serves about 200 kids a day. The facility features a 3,300-square-foot game room, a library, an art room, a computer lab, a multi-purpose room and a full-size gym.

For more information about the Sequim organization, visit bgc-op.org/CCK-sequim or call 360-582-1960.

Sequim Gazette photo by Jacques Star Kat Malcom, child nutrition director for the Sequim Boys & Girls Club, prepares chicken enchilada wraps for distribution to children throughout Sequim on a recent morning. During the months of June and July, the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula provided more than 16,000 meals and snacks to children in Sequim and Port Angeles.

Sequiim Gazette photo by Jacques Star/ The training that Arrow Edgecomb, left, and Isaac Edgecomb received as paid employees of the Sequim Boys & Girls Club has helped prepare the siblings for the work force, according to director of philanthropy for the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula.