Washington, DC – The National League of Cities awards City of Longmont a grant to create programs providing children with afterschool and summer meals.

Three City of Longmont divisions (Children, Youth and Families, the Longmont Public Library, and Recreation Services) are collaborating to provide year-round meals at the Longmont Youth Center’s afterschool program and summer meals to children living in the Southmoor Park neighborhood. During the school year, we will begin to offer snacks and supper meals to middle-school aged youth who participate in the City’s afterschool program at the Longmont Youth Center.
During the summer months, the City will continue to provide meals to youth involved in our summer activities at the Youth Center.

In addition, we plan to add a mobile food, enrichment and recreation program in two parks (Kanemoto and Affolter) that serve the Southmoor Park neighborhood. We will provide meals for children who are swimming at the Kanemoto activity pool.

Furthermore, we will combine the meal program with two hours of enrichment and recreation activity each weekday, which will be organized by our Recreation and Library staff. We will have a mobile van that will not only transport food to these park sites, but will also contain recreation equipment and the library’s mobile “book cycle”. We will offer a combination of organized games and activities, and summer reading. The book cycle comes equipped with Wi-Fi and a collection of books that children can check out on the spot. We can also issue library cards from book cycle.

In addition to $13,980, City of Longmont will receive customized technical assistance, access to best practices and national experts, and opportunities for peer learning as they build and expand programs to bring meals to children.

Clarence Anthony, Executive Director at the National League of Cities said, “The cities chosen should be commended for their commitment and willingness to do the hard work to reduce child hunger in their communities. We know that when children don’t have access to quality meals it affects their ability to learn and their classroom participation. It is imperative that more cities take advantage of federal resources to implement programs that give children access to meals.”

City of Longmont was one of ten cities selected as part of a new technical assistance cohort. The additional nine cities include:
• Chattanooga, TN
• El Centro, CA
• Fontana, CA
• Jersey City, NJ
• New Haven, CT
• Newark, NJ
• Pasadena, CA
• Pittsburgh, PA
• Portland, ME

Contact:Christina Pacheco
Christina.pacheco@ci.longmont.co.us
303-774-3752