The Shippensburg Summer Learning Program
The first program that INSINC wants to highlight is the Shippensburg Community Resource Coalition (SCRC) and their social value of providing youth food security programs that are accessible and safe and that recognize the dignity and worth of the youths.
Created in 2012, the Summer Lunch Program (SLP) has been offering students residing in Shippensburg, from first to twelfth grade, free activities, breakfast, and lunch, during the school summer holiday. I had the opportunity to interview the Community Youth Mobilizer involved with this program over the past couple of years, Alexandra Jones. She answered a few questions about how the SLP is inclusive and socially participates in supporting Shippensburg's food-insecure students.
The SLP shapes the lives of youths in the Shippensburg Area School District (SASD) through “enrichment opportunities.” One way this is achieved is through “access to free meals,” there are other opportunities to be socially cohesive by the daily activities that “challenge the youth's creativity and critical thinking skills.” An example is given of how the program encourages the “youth to be physically active with outdoor recreational time built into every programming day.” The youth's ability to engage in the SLP offers “opportunities allow youth to grow socially, emotionally positively, and intellectually.”
The SLP creates opportunities for students entering grades 7th - 12th to “step up as leaders” and through the SCRC's Leaders-in-Training camp “serve as junior counselors.” The SLP offers social participation opportunities for the junior counselors to help the Program Assistants “lead activities” and increase their “leadership characteristics, such as communication, empathy, self-awareness."
There are guest speakers who present and promote the values that enable them to participate in social and cultural life based on equality of rights, equity, and dignity. For example, the SLP welcomed the “Gleaning Project to teach youth about gleaning.” The youth could participate in field trips and provided opportunities for the students “to work, learn, and serve together!”
The SLP establishes social inclusion by ensuring that equal opportunities for all, regardless of the student's background, can help achieve their fullest potential in life. By “welcoming families of all backgrounds” and “providing free, quality meals to children and families in the Shippensburg area during the summer months when school meals are not available.” According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation Kids Count Data Center, 40.7% of students in the SASD qualified for free or reduced lunches in the 2018-2019 school year. Part of the SCRC's mission is to provide quality social services and youth programs accessible and safe and recognize each person's dignity and worth. Therefore, addressing food security among all children and families in our community is crucial to our mission, and we strive to create a welcoming program for all.
If you are interested in registering your child for the 2021 Summer Lunch Program., please visit the SCRC website at https://www.shipresources.org/. The program is always interested in volunteers to help with daily activities, field trips, or be a guest presenter. If you are interested in getting involved with the SLP, you can contact Alexandra Jones at scrc@shipresources.org.
