NORTHFIELD — A program that provides food during the summer for low-income families with children in the town’s public school is in need of donations.
The program, called “Nurturing Northfield,” was started by Northfield resident Dixie Balzer to help families whose children, during the school year, receive free or discounted breakfasts and lunches at school.
“Dixie decided four summers ago that this was a really important need,” said Northfield resident and Loaves and Fishes coordinator Cathy Hawkins-Harrison. Loaves and Fishes, a program that provides emergency food and fuel for Northfield residents in need, is the umbrella organization of Nurturing Northfield. “It’s literally a labor of love,” Hawkins-Harrison said.
In larger towns like Greenfield and Turners Falls, Hawkins-Harrison said, schools are able to run their breakfast and lunch programs through the summer. But Northfield doesn’t have enough population to warrant federal funding for such a program, and the more rural setting would make it inconvenient anyway, Hawkins-Harrison said.
To fill that gap, Balzer and her husband and children purchase food with funding from Loaves and Fishes, the Salvation Army and a handful of other donors whom Hawkins-Harrison said can’t be publicized. Then, once a week, the Balzers distribute the food to the families.
This year, the program has 13 families, three more than expected, so the $6,000 that was budgeted isn’t enough, Hawkins-Harrison said. She said they will need another $1,000 to make it to the end of the summer.
Donations can be made to Loaves and Fishes, care of Cathy Hawkins-Harrison, and sent to 65 Ashuelot Road.