Students give a helping hand to Macon’s summer free meal programs

As Bibb County students set their notebooks aside and hang their backpacks up for the summer, many will forgo free breakfasts and lunches provided during the school year.

“Often, people don’t realize that 5 or 7 or 10 miles away from where they live, there are children that might go hungry this summer,” said June O’Neal, former executive director of The Mentors Project.

Although she recently retired from the Macon nonprofit, O’Neal — known by some as the “Mother Teresa” of Macon — is still finding ways to give back and will continue working with the organization through at least the end of the year. 

“I’m all about feeding children all the time,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if someone asks me to help do a feeding, I’m glad to do it.”

O’Neal recently helped three Stratford Academy students, Sheefa Sodagar, Uma Pagadala and Trina Goorah, with a service project for their rhetoric and argumentation class.

The trio of students had volunteered with O’Neal in the past but wanted to find a way to provide groceries to children in underserved communities during school break.

“Giving them a little bit of relief, they really appreciated it,” Pagadala said. “It was something small that we could do that made a big difference.”

Sodagar, Pagadala and Goorah raised about $720 by hosting a “dress down day” at Stratford, where students could dress for St. Patrick’s Day instead of wearing uniforms. Students and teachers paid $3 to participate. 

They delivered groceries — items like taco ingredients, bread milk and ice cream — to the homes of 15 families.

“I think the fact that these girls wanted to step into neighborhoods that they might not be well acquainted with was just wonderful,” O’Neal said.

The Summer Feeding Program is an annual initiative by The Mentor’s Project to feed children during the summer when they’re out of school and meals aren’t guaranteed. 

There will be several packing and distribution days throughout the month of June and July. For information about volunteering for the Mentors Project Summer Feeding Program call 478-954-4346.

Summer Feeding Program schedule: 

• Pack and distribute bags on July 7 at 8 a.m.
• Pack bag days: June 26, July 10 and July 17 at 8 a.m.
• Distribute bags days: June 30, July 14 and July 21 at 8 a.m.

The Bibb County School District will also provide free breakfasts, from 8-8:30 a.m., and free lunches, from 12:30-1 p.m., Monday through Thursday until June 26 to children at Weaver Middle School, Southwest High School and SOAR Academy.

Breakfast will be available at John R. Lewis, Veterans and Martin Luther King Jr. elementary schools from 9-9:30 a.m. on the same dates. Lunch will be available at all sites.