In August, the Mid-Ohio Kitchen team closed the books on a record-setting summer feeding season. From June to August 2024, MOFC prepared and distributed more than 100,000 summer meals to hungry kids across the county. In a typical week, between 5,000 and 6,000 healthy, fresh meals would leave MOFC’s kitchen at the food bank. At peak, our team sent 17,000 meals per week (10,000 of which were delivered hot) out into the community to feed kids in need across 37 sites and nine delivery routes.
All this was possible thanks to the hard work of our 29-person summer feeding team (pictured below) and donors to MOFC’s “No School Means No Lunch” campaign, which fundraises specifically to help kids and families make up for meals missed at school. Many families rely on free or reduced-cost school meals and need help making ends meet during summer vacation.
Summer 2024 also had some firsts for MOFC’s summer feeding initiative, including our first decentralized summer feeding site in a rural area. For the first time, our Kitchen was able to prepare and distribute five-day meal kits for kids in Amlin, a small town outside Columbus.
“Thanks to our community’s generosity, Mid-Ohio Kitchen was able to feed 1,800 kids a day all summer long,” said MOFC Executive Chef Jay Cotrell. “It’s about nurturing our community’s future, and all we can say is thank you—from the bottom of our hearts—for helping us help these kids.”
