Some 250 lunches a day are made and delivered by volunteers at three parishes in Fayette County.

Members of the Holy Trinity, St. Gabriel and St. Matthew parishes teamed up again during the school summer break to make sure local youngsters don’t go hungry. The families receiving the lunches qualify for free or reduced meals during the school year, but the food program stops during the summer.

Tyrone’s St. Matthew Church provides one sandwich—turkey and cheese or ham and cheese—a juice box, bag of chips, a homemade dessert, a piece of fresh fruit, mayo and mustard packets, a napkin and a prayer card to each child in the pre-K through eighth-grade program. High schoolers get the same lunch, except they get water instead of juice and two sandwiches.

Lisa Lowther, an organizer at St. Matthew Church, said the parish community embraced the effort. In fact, for two summers in a row, one couple has purchased every loaf of bread.

“I’ve never had to purchase bread. To date, we have brought in enough in donations to cover the entire cost of the program, and then some. I will probably end the summer with a surplus of some items.”

St. Matthew Church members do the preparation and delivery once a week, while parishioners at St. Gabriel, Fayetteville, and Holy Trinity, Peachtree City, serve two days a week. Some 10,000 meals were delivered by the end of July.

“It is unacceptable that children in our community should go hungry during the summer or anytime for that matter. It’s a simple step to making sure everyone has enough healthy food to eat. And when people get involved in such a worthy cause, the word spreads and more good work can be done,” said Lowther.