As the cost of living continues to rise and economic struggles persist, there is a growing need to provide food to those in need. This has led to an unprecedented demand of food pantries to put meals on the table for millions of deprived families. One food pantry, in particular, has been excelling in its fight against child hunger.

Agape Meals for Kids is a non-profit, 100% volunteer organization focused on providing food-insecure children with weekend meals. It was established in the Fall of 2021, largely due to the COVID-19 Pandemic that only further harmed those with food shortage concerns. There are plenty of groups that supply food to these children throughout the school week, but Agape Meals for Kids stood alone as a program to send kids home with backpacks of food to last an entire weekend.

“Once we heard that there were children, right here on Long Island, who rely on school meals during the weekdays, but then go home on the weekends and there isn’t enough, or anything at all, to eat, we felt convicted,” said Irene Michalos, the volunteer Executive Director of Agape Meals for Kids. “That wasn’t something that we thought was acceptable so we wanted to do something about it.”

The organization acts as a mobile pantry that delivers packaged food to these children through partnerships with local school districts. The process starts with the schools indicating the number of students they believe can benefit from this program. The organization then sends opt-in forms for the parents to agree that the children can participate, and confirm any allergy or food restrictions they may have.

The group focuses on child-family foods, which are items that children can eat by themselves when they are at home. These are non-perishable foods like canned soup, macaroni-and-cheese, cereal, milk, granola bars, pasta, and other shelf-stable items.

The food pantry packs up all the food and delivers weekly to the school districts. Agape Meals for Kids currently has 242 children in the program and will be adding more school districts including East Northport, Huntington, and Harborfields.

“It means a tremendous amount to us knowing that every week children don’t have to experience the stress and anxiety of knowing that they would have to face a weekend of hunger,“ Michalos told The Messenger.

She relayed a story about a child that forgot to pick up a backpack on Friday and was so upset that they asked the bus driver to go back to the school to get the backpack.

“Stories like that really show to us how necessary the program is,” Michalos said. “Even though it is absolutely heartbreaking to know this, it is also heartwarming to know that we are making a difference.”

Agape Meals for Kids has become more and more vital each day due to the constant rise of food-insecure children. This is a growing problem in the country that the organization recognizes and is working tirelessly to solve.

“It’s a complicated web of both social and economic policy failures,” Michalos said regarding this issue. “We have a systematically cut social safety net, making it harder for families to even access help, but also we have a wealth gap, unaffordable housing, high costs of healthcare, unaffordable childcare, high food costs, inflation, stagnating wages, unemployment, and underemployment. That safety net is not sufficient and isn’t there for families. One harrowing statistic I’ve learned in this journey of forming Agape Meals for Kids is that the majority of Americans can not afford a $400 emergency.”

The program has been expanding ever since its founding three years ago by participating in food drives and spreading its name just by meeting people. The volunteers of Agape Meals for Kids have done their best to combat the child hunger crisis, but they can only do so much. In order to effectively fight this issue, Agape Meals for Kids requires aid from others.

The organization has received support from local businesses including Starbucks, Kimco Realty, Long Island Cares and Long Island Harvest. It survives off weekly donations from these companies as well as other donors.

Agape Meals for Kids will be participating in a major event on Labor Day weekend called “Run Miles 4 Youth Hunger and 4 Parkinsons” that will not only provide much needed donations and support, but will also spread awareness of the organization’s mission. In this event ultra-runner Wai Law will be running a four-mile loop 50 times in 48 hours (8/30-9/1) to raise funds for Parkinson’s research and childhood hunger. The loop begins at the Green Street Eatery in Levittown.

In a world where food shortages are a concern more than ever, it’s great to see organizations like Agape Meals for Kids contribute to the cause.

To learn more about this program and its upcoming events visit their instagram page: @agapemealsforkids. Agape Meals for Kids can be reached at 631-343-9555, or by email [email protected]. They can also be reached through mail at P.O. Box 311, Mount Sinai, 11766.