Lunches for Early Childhood Outing

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Lunches for Early Childhood Outing volunteers create nutritious lunches for the Simpson Housing Services Ready for Kindergarten Program. Families who participated this year in our Ready for K cohort will be attending a celebration outing on May 4 th to the Children’s Museum of MN . Lunches will allow us to stay and enjoy the museum for a longer period of time and also to share fellowship with each other over a meal. Volunteers purchase the food items needed for the lunches. Approximate cost is between $100 - $120.

Shopping List

Food Handling Materials

• Cleaning supplies
• Hand sanitizer if a sink and hand soap is not available in the room
• Cardboard boxes or paper bags for transporting bag lunches
• A few permanent markers

30 Lunches for Ready for K outing (10 adult lunches and 20 children lunches)

Your goal is to make hearty and delicious lunches that kids and adults would like to eat. Quality is more important than quantity.

• 30 paper lunch bags
• 30 napkins
• 10 sandwiches for the adults - Basic sandwiches / tortilla wraps/bagels- roast beef, chicken, turkey, salami, and pastrami are good options. Please do not purchase bologna. No condiments or vegetables. Do not make peanut butter and jelly, chicken salad, or tuna salad sandwiches.
• 20 lunchable lunches for the kids (meat and cheese option, all the same)
• 20 Juice Boxes (if they don’t come in the lunchable - Preferred juice boxes with more juice than sugar.
• 10 drinks for the adults (water or low-sugar juice/tea preferred)
• 30 Fruit/Vegetable servings; clementine, apple, banana, applesauce, or mini carrots with dip. Please provide utensil, if needed.
• 10 Individually pre-packaged snack; crackers, chips, cheese stick, etc.
• 30 individually pre-packaged treats; cookie, brownie, dried fruit, or chewy granola bar (optional).
• Small individual serving packets of mustard and mayo (optional)

Guidelines

• Minimum number of volunteers: 1.
• Maximum number of volunteers: 15.
• Children/youth groups must have a minimum adult to child ratio of 1:5.

Food Preparation Procedure

1. Carefully clean the food preparation area or cover table with new paper/plastic.
2. Ask that people with long hair tie their hair back.
3. Ask all volunteers to wear hairnets.
4. Ask volunteers to roll up long sleeves.
5. Make sure every person thoroughly washes and dries their hands.
6. Everyone must wear plastic gloves. Please read the following instructions about gloves to your entire group.

You must change your gloves if:

• You touch your face, hair, clothing
• You touch a part of the room that was not sterilized (chair, doorknob, etc.)
• You touch another person
• You use the bathroom
• You cough or sneeze
• Your gloves get ripped or torn

1. If you are working with youth, please ask that they respect the food. Remind them to treat the food as if they were making a sandwich for their best friend. Avoid making thumbprints in the bread, squishing sandwiches into bags, playing with the food, etc.
2. Assemble the sandwiches by placing at least one piece of meat and one piece of cheese between two slices of bread.
3. Place each sandwich in a sandwich bag.
4. Ask volunteers to place napkins, sandwich, fruit, juice box, snack, and treats in the paper lunch bags.
5. Store completed lunches in cold storage for transportation.
6. Thank the volunteers and clean up the work space.
7. Deliver the food to Bell House during our donation hours (see page 1).

Frequently Asked Questions

Can we make more than 30 bag lunches?

This outing will include 30 people total, no extra lunches are needed for these events. If you would like to make more than 30 lunches, contact Simpson Housing, for more donation opportunities.

Can extra lunch supplies be donated?

If you have extra individually prepackaged items and would like to donate them, we can use them for other mentoring/tutoring programs.

Can we write notes to include with the food?

This is a very thoughtful gesture, but we do not accept notes. Ink from the notes can run onto the food. It is also challenging to write a message that is appropriate and helpful for the students.

What does Simpson Housing Services need besides lunches?

Our greatest need is for funding to keep our shelter doors open. You can view a full list of our supply needs on our website at http://www.simpsonhousing.org/donate_inkind.html. Contact Christina Giese with questions or for a list of urgent needs.

Why is Literacy Mentoring so important?

Youth who have experienced homelessness often face additional challenges and barriers. Supportive, caring adults are an important resilience factor for all children and are especially important for those who have lived with instability and trauma.

Mentoring helps youth strengthen their confidence, hope, and ability to make thoughtful decisions. They are able to form stronger relationships and communicate better with both peers and adults. Youth with mentors have fewer attendance issues and fewer behavior problems at school. They are less likely to engage in risky behavior, such as drugs or underage drinking, and more likely to graduate from high school and continue their education.

In the context of this program specifically, mentors support youth in building confidence and positive feelings around reading, helping them to be more enthusiastic readers and life-long learners. The positive relationships that mentors have with their mentees also helps youth engage more deeply with new experiences on group outings.

Where can we find out more about homelessness?

• Spent: playspent.org

This activity challenges you to survive for a month by making tough choices as a low-wage worker.

• Wilder Foundation: wilder.org/homelessness.0.html

The Wilder Foundation does statewide research on homelessness. Their detailed studies provide us with much of what we know about homelessness in Minnesota.

• Minnesota Housing Partnership: mhponline.org

The MHP website has in-depth information about housing affordability, as well as opportunities for advocacy and learning.

For outing or Ready for K details contact Charlotte Kinzley, Youth Program Manager, at 612.455.0850 or ckinzley@simpsonhousing.org.