The “No Kid Hungry” projects is now finishing up its third week with its newest project, “Bus Stop Cafe” and according to project overseer Melissa Tallent, the rolling food truck is feeding around 500 children per week in Clinton County.

Every morning, Monday through Friday, the bus loads up at 7:10 a.m. at the high school and makes several stops during the morning hours before heading back and loading up for lunch.

Tallent said the project is going better than expected.

“Sixty per day has been the lowest we’ve fed,” Tallent said. “We are close to 500 on the week. Overall I’m really happy. This is for the kids and we are helping and that’s great, but it bothered me when we pulled up to a couple of stops and I saw that the parents were hungry too.”

Tallent said the grant she has acquired for this project will run out this summer, but she hopes to get donations in order to provide for more people in the fall of this year.

“We would like to do boxes of non-perishable foods … these kids who have been on the bus, we would like to go back to their homes in October and December and deliver food that is sustainable like cereal, mac and cheese and have the bus with volunteers go door to door,” Tallent said. “If I can get enough money to do that then that’s what we are going to do.”

Tallent said she has had numerous people volunteer to help on the bus and after one day making the stops they are ready for another day.

“The people who work on the bus, they probably get more out of it. I do … seeing them and talking to them. When this bus pulls up they come running,” Tallent said. “It’s probably the best feeling in the world.”

Other than volunteers to help pass out food, volunteer bus drivers have given 13 days of service in order to help the cause.

Bus driver Bro. David Dorn said “Last night when I did my devotion with my kids I told them they didn’t know how fortunate they are,” Dorn said. “If they didn’t do this, these kids wouldn’t eat. I knew there was need but not to this extent. We’ve probably not even touched the surface of what is going on. It’s worth the five hours a day we give.”

Dorn said it was all about the kids.

“I love Ms. Tallent, but I’m not doing it for her. I’m doing it for the kids,” Dorn said. “If you had two buses I know you could have 12 or 13 sites. I know outside the city there is a need.”

Tallent has said since the beginning of the project last year, this is the most fulfilling thing she has done in her tenure as a teacher at Clinton County High School.

“It’s the best thing I’ve done in education,” Tallent said. “I can teach them everything I can in education in books, but this will last them a lifetime. The best thing is these kids are getting something out of it.”

The morning stops will be made at Albany Manor 7:30-7:45 a.m., Reeves Trailer Park 7:50-8:05 a.m., Horseshoe Bend 8:15-8:30 a.m., Albany Center Apartments 8:40-8:55 a.m., Mountain View Trailer Park 9:05-9:20 a.m. and Wilson Airport Trailer Park 9:30-9:45 a.m. for breakfast.

For lunch, the stops will be made in the same order with times determined to be 10:30-10:50 a.m., 10:55-11:15 a.m., 11:25-11:45 a.m., 11:55 a.m.-12:15 p.m., 12:25-12:45 p.m. and 12:55-1:15 p.m. The project runs every weekday, except July 4, until July 28, 2014.

1

Volunteer Bro. David Dorn helped load the “Bus Stop Cafe” Friday morning to prepare for the lunch route along with Melissa Tallent, right, and Linda Brummett.