Nutritional Development Services (NDS), an agency of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, is currently hosting its Summer Meals Program. This vital initiative ensures that children and youth aged 18 or younger throughout the Greater Philadelphia area have access to wholesome, nourishing meals at no cost when school is out of session.
This year, NDS’ theme is “A Summer of Kindness” to coincide with its “Operation Kindness” program. This program provides partnering summer meal sites with activities to encourage children and youth to think and act with kindness.
While training hundreds of sites to operate the USDA funded Summer Meals Program, NDS provided various materials so that the site managers can encourage kindness among the children. “The goal is not only to focus on kindness through the span of an activity, but also to encourage kind thinking and ongoing kind behavior” says Dave Stier, Assistant Director of Community Relations for NDS.
To kick off “A Summer of Kindness”, NDS hosted their annual “Blessing of the Summer” at Saint Malachy’s Out-of-School Time Program (OST) in North Philadelphia. Led by Reverend Monsignor Daniel J. Sullivan, President of NDS’ Board, participating children in the summer OST at Saint Malachy’s submitted their commitments to kindness and received “Kindness Counts” bracelets.
In order to maximize participation and increase the enjoyment of the activities, NDS more recently celebrated their Day of Kindness, where children were encouraged to do simple acts of kindness that can positively impact their peers and others.
Children at Snyder-Girotti, one of the many Summer Meals Program sites supported by NDS, spent their day of kindness putting together a kindness puzzle, illustrating how each kind act connects like pieces of a puzzle.
Meanwhile at YWCA Bucks Meadow, Site Manager Flora Sanchez has been practicing kindness all summer by encouraging her children to engage in various kindness activities ranging from creating kindness flash cards to using water buckets to “douse your favorite kind person”. In addition, Sanchez and her site are currently entered in NDS’ Kindness Contest where they submitted a poster displaying a tree of kindness.
NDS is hosting three separate kindness contests to encourage creativity among children benefitting from the Summer Meals Program. The three contests include a poster – drawing about what kindness means to you, writing – poems, stories, songs, other creative writings about kindness, and a kindness calendar plan.
“NDS staff members pitch in to serve as judges for the contests. We are often impressed, not only by the talent in the artwork and other creative submissions, but also at the wisdom and heart that the children demonstrate by their submissions,” states Stier. “God’s light clearly shines when we create opportunities for people to show it.”
In 2022, NDS’ Summer Meals Program served 275 sites throughout the greater Philadelphia area and provided approximately 400,000 meals to children.
For over 50 years, NDS’ mission has been to serve children and those in need with healthy food and food-related resources. NDS accomplishes its mission in two distinct ways: by administering the federally-funded child nutrition programs and through the privately supported Community Food Program.
For more information about the Summer Meals Program, please visit here.
To learn more about NDS, check out their website here.
