"Spiking" interest in summer food and summer learning
Supporting students and educators has become even more of a priority under the restrictions of the COVID-19 panedemic. United Way of Greater Topeka continues to work with community partners to ensure that children have resources to help them continue learning even when in-person school can't happen.
For the past six years, UWGT has led the Shawnee County Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, a coalition of local partners that find ways to keep students engaged in learning in and out of school. On July 17, CGLR hosted its annual "spike" event that encourages families and care providers to take advantage of summer food service for kids 18 and under by combining a lunch site with reading and learning activities. This year's event survived a hot day outside at the Topeka Zoo. Donations allowed 300 people to enter the zoo for free during the 3-hour event and to visit a dozen partner tables for take-home activities and free books.
"Being able to have our event at the Zoo was definitely a plus," said Jessica Barraclough, UWGT Director of Volunteer Engagement. "First and foremost, we needed this event to be safe for kids and families, and being outside at the zoo, where they already had strong COVID-19 precautions in place, made that possible."
CGLR has also helped coordinate several other book distributions in conjunction with summer food service, distributing 1,500 books in a single day at the end of July. Throughout the summer CGLR helped distribute more than 15,000 books, 300 activity packets and many more community resources. Thank you to the more than 70 volunteers who helped make the summer program a success! And a huge thank you to Topeka Public Schools Food Service for making sure kids never had to go without lunch or breakfast this summer.
Be sure to watch for some exciting news in the August newsletter about the Shawnee County CGLR quest for a fifth national Pacesetter award!