:quality(70):focal(460x115:470x125)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/5SWUFWO5PVGCRFCGADPCPW6VX4.jpg)
DIXON – The United Way of Lee County is proud to offer a free summer meal program for kids and teens in Lee County. This program provides free meals all summer, giving each child three meals to take home with them every week.
The goal of the program is to address food insecurity in our county and make sure that every child and family has access to meals when school is out of session.
In 2023, the United Way of Lee County served over 11,000 meals at 11 sites. This year, we are expecting an increase in meals served and also are looking for additional donations from the community to help support the program.
This program is 100% funded by donations and grants from the community. We would not be able to expand our program without the generous support and donations from the community.
This summer, we will be expanding our Summer Eats program into Polo. We are excited to grow the program and will continue to also have serving sites in Amboy, Ashton, Franklin Grove, Paw Paw and Dixon.
The United Way of Lee County would love your help with our Summer Eats program! This year, we are asking Lee County churches and organizations to consider promoting and collecting for a canned pasta drive on Mother’s Day, May 12, (or any other time that works for your group). Kids’ favorite choices of pasta items include SpaghettiOs, Easy Mac, Beefaroni, and ravioli, but we will accept any shelf-stable, individual servings of pasta.
The items collected will be used to keep our children eat throughout the summer while school is not in session. We will have 12 sites throughout the county, including at public libraries to help promote literacy. Anyone 18 years old or younger can pick up a free sack lunch, no questions asked. In addition to the pasta dishes, lunches will be full of kid-friendly food such as fruit cups, fruit snacks, crackers, granola bars, oatmeal and more.
You also can help support this program through monetary donations. They can be mailed to P.O. Box 382, Dixon, IL 61021. We served more than 11,000 meals last summer, and we expect a greater need this year.
We are asking for the cans of pasta to be delivered to St. Paul Lutheran Church at 421 S. Peoria Ave., Dixon, during office hours from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. The church can be reached at 815-288-2757. St. Paul’s has been generous enough to let us use their facilities to pack the lunches.
We are hoping to have all donations dropped off by May 24, but we will be accepting donations throughout the summer.
If a pickup of donations is needed, you can reach out to Sheila Buccola at United Way by calling 815-284-3339.
Thank you for your kindness, generosity and support of United Way of Lee County and our Summer Eats program! Special thanks to Dixon Walmart and Geenex for committing to sponsor part of this program.
In addition to monetary donation and food drives, we also will be looking to fill hundreds of volunteer slots. Volunteers help unbox food items, pack meals and serve meals at sites. We would not be able to run this program without the help of so many amazing and dedicated volunteers.
The Summer Eats meal program will run from June 5 to Aug. 7, and volunteer signup will be shared to our Facebook page. Follow our Facebook page United Way of Lee County, Dixon IL.
Donations for Summer Eats can be mailed to United Way of Lee County, P.O. Box 382, Dixon, IL 61021. If you have any questions about the program or volunteering, email Buccola at sbuccola@uwleeco.org or call 815-284-3339.
- Ashley Richter is the executive director of the United Way of Lee County.