Article from the Times Leader on October 13, 2023
Among the 100 guests who attended the sixth annual Dinners For Kids gala Thursday evening at Misericordia University were several who had hands-on experience packing nutritious meals and delivering them to grateful children.
“Some kids will be waiting on the porch,” District Magistrate Jim Haggerty told a reporter during the opening reception. “There’s one family with six children, and they’re always very polite. We get six smiles and six ‘thank-yous.’”
Haggerty lives in Kingston — in fact he’s the former mayor — but he delivers meals in Wilkes-Barre, where his most recent trip benefited 115 children in 43 families.
“It’s a great feeling” to help, Haggerty said. But the need is great.
And sometimes you can find hunger in places you wouldn’t expect.
“How could I have been so blind?” volunteer packer Colleen Logan said, explaining that was her reaction when she learned deliveries were being made to families in need a few blocks from her home.
“Sometimes people think of the Back Mountain as a place you wouldn’t find hunger,” said David Hage Ph.D., who teaches on the social work faculty at Misericordia University. “But it’s here.”
Hage’s students helped raise $14,000 to buy a freezer for Dinners For Kids, and they also conducted research that revealed a strong correlation between nutrition and brain development, emphasizing the importance of wholesome food, especially for children.
“This is my number one love,” said Bob Borwick, who chairs the Dinners For Kids board of directors.
Dinners For Kids was established in 2011 by David and Edna Tevet, owners of Ollie’s Restaurant, who “built the program up to 80 or 90 kids,” Borwick said.
Borwick’s son, Matt, who purchased Ollie’s Restaurant, and also owns The Atrium, has kept Dinners For Kids going, and it’s now up to 250 kids being fed each week in the Wilkes-Barre, West Side and Dallas areas. “We could do 1,000,” Borwick said. “The need is so great.”
Thursday’s gala honored Rabbi Larry Kaplan, who is spiritual leader of Temple Israel, and, many might add, of the community at large. The rabbi helped establish Dinners For Kids, Borwick said, and now serves on the board of directors in addition to sharing his leadership skills with many other charitable and civic organizations.
The gala was a $100 per person event and, Borwick said, “every dollar will benefit Dinners For Kids,” where meals are prepared at Ollie’s, at cost, for $3.50 each.
If you would like to help feed hungry children, Dinners For Kids can use volunteers to package the meals at Ollie’s Restaurant, starting at 1 p.m., on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Volunteer drivers pick up the meals for delivery at or after 2:30 p.m. Anyone interested is asked to send a message to contact@dinnersforkids.org. Be sure to mention if you want to package meals or deliver them.
Monetary donations are also welcome; $63, for example, feeds three children for one week; $1,092 feeds one child for a year. More information is available at Dinners4Kids.org, and checks may be mailed to Dinners For Kids, 84 South Wyoming Ave., Edwardsville PA 18704.
