Ready 2 Read: Free summer reading program for kids

Ready 2 Read El Dorado (R2R) is a free reading program for children in July – to help them strengthen and maintain reading skills, to return to school ready to learn.

The goal is for all children to become successful readers. R2R helps children improve their reading skills by engaging in fun activities with a volunteer Reading Buddy.

Kids ages 6 – 9 attend two 45 minute sessions a week: Mondays & Wednesdays, or Tuesdays & Thursdays.

Kids ages 4 – 5 attend story time groups on Fridays, to build reading readiness skills.

The Registration Form lists the reading sites being considered in El Dorado. All sessions are in the afternoon.

Pre-registration by May 31 is required for children to participate.

Parents and caregivers are encouraged to register children online soon: Online Registration Form.

Children who participate in Ready 2 Read receive a snack before reading sessions, and also fresh fruit and veggies to take home. Participating households are eligible for weekly drawings of groceries to prepare a family dinner at home.

The deadline to register a child is May 31, 2021.

 

Lifelong Learning Makes for Better Community Leaders: Here’s How to Expand Your Knowledge and Skill Set

Image via Pexels

If there’s one thing community leaders should never stop doing, it’s learning. According to Ivey Business Journal, the best leaders are continuous learners. It’s critical for leaders to seek out valuable information, put their findings into practice, and share newfound knowledge with members in their community.

To encourage lifelong learning and take some of the work out of finding valuable information, Kids Need 2 Eat offers helpful resources for community leaders in the sections below.

Opportunities for Continuous Learning

Learn something new every day with these great opportunities for lifelong learning.

• Become a continuous learner by applying these 10 tips from Anders Pink. These tips will help you to set learning goals, find information from a variety of reputable sources, and reflect on what you’ve learned so you’ll be more likely to retain it.
• Read these 10 leadership books recommended by Forbes’ exclusive Coaches Council.
• Listen to educational podcasts. If you subscribe to your favorites, you can have them delivered to your mobile device as soon as they’re released. Fortunately, you can find an almost endless supply of podcasts via Apple and SoundCloud.
• Go back to school and obtain an online master’s degree in cybersecurity and information assurance, data analytics, or information technology management. Depending on your college background and career goals, other possible areas of study may include business, health, or education.

Clubs and Organizations for Community Leaders

Expand your knowledge and connect with other leaders in your community by joining a professional club or organization.

• Join your local chamber of commerce so you can learn, grow and connect with other local business leaders.
• Consider becoming a member of your local Rotary Club or similar service organization.
• Join Toastmasters International to become a better public speaker and communicator.
• Seek like-minded individuals through Meetup groups. This can help you grow your network of professionals, which is something any leader can benefit from.

Lifelong learning is beneficial to you — the community leader — and also to other leaders and community members. And fortunately, these tips and resources will help to improve your knowledge and competencies to make for a stronger, more adaptable leader in your community.

Volunteering with KN2E is another great way to build on your lifelong learning, as well as contribute to your community. For more information, call 405-308-9158

Contributed by Emily Graham, chief blogger at MightyMoms.net!

• emilygraham@mightymoms.net
• http://mightymoms.net/

KN2E to host new summer reading program for kids

After providing free summer meals for kids for nine years, Kids Need To Eat (KN2E) has phased out its popular Kidz Summer LunchBox program. 

The LunchBox 2020 was its most ambitious and successful program. During a period of 13 weeks, over 9000 meals and 1000 weekend foodpacks were handed out at LunchBox meal sites. 

This was only possible due to generous community support in the form of cash and in-kind donations, and volunteers. Particularly successful was its Teen Cash Stipend Program, providing a hybrid volunteer/stipend work experience that for many youth was their first “job”. 

KN2E is a small nonprofit with no paid staff. It was founded in 2013 to focus on helping children to have a developmentally productive summer in terms of nutrition and enrichment activities. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there are now ways that larger nonprofits – such as a school district, hospital, or city parks department – are in a better position to sponsor free summer meals. 

As a result, KN2E’s Board of Directors downsized its involvement in providing summer meals. Instead, it will sponsor a summer reading program for children: Ready 2 Read! Summer Reading Fun for Kids Ages 4 – 9.

The focus of Ready to Read! (R2R) is on helping children who struggle to read at grade level, or at risk of having delayed reading skills. 

Parents/caretakers are encouraged to register children during May. For details, visit Ready 2 Read El Dorado KS on Facebook, and follow this website.  

KN2E Annual Meeting is open to the public.

• What: KN2E Annual Meeting / Board Meeting
• When: Wednesday, January 27, 2021, 4:30 – 6:00 pm
• Where: Online using Zoom (email KN2E@msn.com if you plan to participate – you will receive the Zoom details before the meeting)
• Agenda: Election of officers, annual reports, financial reports, and 2021 planning
• Who: KN2E Board Members. Also open to the public.

KN2E Board Meeting set for Sept. 22, 2020

If you might be interested in becoming a member of the KN2E Board of Directors, you are welcome to attend our next Board meeting on Tuesday, September 22, 2020, 4:30 – 6:00 pm. For details, contact Board president Judie Storandt by cell or text: 405-308-9158.

New Meal Sites added to Kidz LunchBox in August

Kidz LunchBox has added two additional meal sites during August. All six meal sites during August are listed below. One is open until 1:30 pm.

Every meal site offers free meals for all children ages 1 – 18. This is a summer nutrition program for all children & youth – without regard for need.

All meal sites offer Grab & Go Curbside Pickup. Parents and other caretakers do not need to have children in their car to pick up meals, except for their first visit. Curbside Pickup cards are offered to display on your dashboard to indicate how many children you may get lunches for without all of them being in your car.

Diapers are available in sizes 1 – 6 at the Quail Ridge site – and at other meal sites on request.

COVID-19 threatens school meals

1 big thing: Virus threatens food programs

Axios PM, July 17, 2020

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Kids will already suffer this fall if they can’t return to classrooms, and for millions of them it also threatens their access to nutritious food.

Why it matters: School is not just a place for learning; it’s also a place where children get fed. Millions of children who don’t go to school on any given day risk going hungry at home,Axios’ Felix Salmon reports.

The big picture: 13.9 million children are suffering from food insecurity, up from 2.5 million in 2018 and 5.1 million at the height of the Great Recession in 2008, according to Lauren Bauer of the Hamilton Project, who used data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

“About 3 in 10 Black households with children and 1 in 4 Hispanic households with children did not have sufficient food due to a lack of resources in June,” she writes

Between the lines: School districts rushed to create temporary food solutions for kids when they closed this spring.

But many of those districts now face budget crunches and other issues — and kids are bound to fall through the cracks.

Among the broad consequences in terms of academic performance, food-insecure children are more likely to have to repeat a grade and have lower test scores than their food-secure counterparts.

A Canadian study found that “child hunger is a significant and independent predictor of youth dropping out of high school, even when multiple effects within the poverty pathway are considered.”

The bottom line: The effects of childhood hunger last beyond graduation and well into the workforce.

What’s next: Former VP Joe Biden called on President Trump and Congress to pass a $30 billion emergency package for public schools.

Kidz Summer LunchBox 2020 continues thru August 7.

By Deanna Bonn/Times-Gazette Posted Jul 2, 2020 at 1:45 PM

The Glow Bus dining room may be empty, but meals are still being served this summer through the Kids Need to Eat program. Kids Need To Eat, Inc. (KN2E) is an all-volunteer 501(c)3 non-profit with no paid staff.

KN2E was founded in 2013 to address the problem of many families being unable to provide nutritionally for their children in the summer when school is out and they don’t have access to meals at school.

This is the fourth year Mark Somerville has been the driver for Kids Need To Eat GLOW Bus. The GLOW Bus [Green Lunchroom on Wheels] takes free meals to Kidz LunchBox meal sites. In addition to free food, the LunchBox offers a range of enrichment activities to help kids have a developmentally productive summer.

Kids Need To Eat, Inc. is a summer lunchbox program for area children ages 1-18 Volunteer and Site Leader at First Methodist Church, Liberty Peterson said, this is her first year to volunteer with the organization and meal service began on June 1st.

Meals continue to be served Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays through August 7th, with meal sites located at Blackmore Elementary, El Dorado High School, Skelly Elementary and First Methodist Church from 11:30 a.m. to 1 o.m. and at the Quail Ridge Apartments from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.

Source: https://www.butlercountytimesgazette.com/news/20200702/lunchbox-program-active

Free Summer Meals for Kids 2020

All children ages 1 – 18 are invited to pick up free meals now through August 7, 2020.

Summer Job Opportunities for Teens

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

CLICK HERE FOR LIST OF MEAL SITES – LOCATIONS & TIMES