The Hopkinsville Christian County Family YMCA has announced that they are expanding their community feeding program.
According to a news release, the YMCA feeding program will now offer weekend grab bags at select locations and the grab bags will be available to youth 18 years of age and younger. The first six locations will Aaron McNeil House, Challenge House 1, Challenge House 4, Challenge House 5, Restoration House and Freeman Chapel CME Church.
The YMCA recently received a grant from the Arby’s Foundation which allowed this idea to become a reality, along with a donation by the Wood Family to the YMCA of old Kentucky New Era newspaper racks. The Arby’s Foundation awarded funding to refurbish the racks for meal distribution.
The Hopkinsville YMCA distributed 40,467 meals in 2021, and also partners with the Christian County Public School system to support their weekend backpack program distributing over 5,795 backpacks this school year. This new program, which uses old newspaper racks to hold several bags of food at each location, will allow them to reach children and families not supported by the backpack program or who have additional needs on the weekend.