For more than 20 years service organizations, churches and others have helped Marietta-based MUST Ministries with its summer lunch program by providing homemade sandwiches to be delivered to needy children in seven counties in metro Atlanta.
Last Friday, MUST was notified by state health officials that for food safety reasons, only sandwiches made in certified, licensed kitchens under supervision can be distributed in the sack lunches.
Volunteers and organizations have been preparing sandwiches at their own venues, and at MUST kitchen off Cobb Parkway near Bells Ferry Road in “lunch building” sessions.
With only a couple weeks to go before the summer lunch program begins, MUST is asking anyone who wants to help to make a cash donation so it can purchase sandwiches for the summer lunch program, which starts May 28 and continues until the end of July.
It’s called “SOS”—for “Save Our Sandwiches”—and MUST says the cost will cover only the purchase of sandwiches, about 75 cents each. Other items for the lunches, including juice boxes, crackers, fruit cups and other prepacked foods and snacks, are still accepted.
Last summer MUST distributed between 6,000 to 7,000 sandwiches a week, or around 260,000 for the summer, to kids who qualify for free or reduced school lunches.
MUST has pointed out that in 23 years of the summer lunch program, it’s never heard of an instance of a food safety issue. MUST has distributed for years a lengthy list of requirements for those who’ve made sandwiches.
MUST looked at partnering with church and other certified kitchens, but that was unfeasible since the summer lunch program is less than two weeks away.
Thus far, more than $17,000 has been raised for MUST to buy sandwiches from a certified food vendor, about enough to get through three weeks of the seven-week summer lunch program.
If you’re interested in helping out, you can text “MUSTSOS” to the number 52182, or e-mail SummerLunch@MUSTMinistries.org.
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