Contributed byBenjamin Harrison of the 7th District AME Church

On October 25, 2004, the 7th District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) entered into a formal agreement with the SC Department of Social Services (SCDSS). The two organizations partnered in a collective effort to meet the nutritional needs of underprivileged children throughout the state of SC by providing them a free state sponsored summer lunch.

Due in part to President Bush’s call for the federal government to partner with faith based organizations toward the betterment of our nation’s communities, this federally funded summer lunch program provides financial resources which flow from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to the SCDSS.

The SCDSS then seeks local sponsors such as non–profit organizations, school districts, and community parks and recreations departments, through which these federal monies are transformed into meals for local children.

In 2004 when a major Summer Food Service Program sponsor was no longer able to assist the SCDSS in providing summer lunches to at risk children, the 7th District of the AME Church under the leadership of Bishop Preston Warren Williams II came to their aid.

“Providing those things for which families and children are in need is the central focus of our myriad ministries here at the AME Church,” states presiding Bishop Preston Warren Williams II. “We seek to assist those segments of society which are most in need of help. It is a privilege and pleasure to offer our energy and resources to ensure that the nutritional needs of as many children as possible continue to be met during their summers away from school.”

Wilbert Lewis, the DSS director of the Faith Based Initiative, adds , “DSS values being able to work with the AME Church in that when we recognized a need to feed many of SC’s low income children during the summer months, the AME church, under the leadership of Bishop Williams, stepped up and assisted us by participating in the Summer Food Service Program.”

2005 is the first summer during which this lunch program has operated under formal partnership between the AME Church and the SCDSS. According to Kisha Guess, Summer Lunch Program director for the AME Church in Richland County, the AME Church formally named this program the Statewide Outreach Program.

With 634 churches statewide the 7th District of the AME Church offers a tremendous resource to the SCDSS for connecting federal funds to those children who are most in need. Guess further states, “As I visited the various sites throughout Richland County I was overjoyed by the outreach service that the AME Church was providing. Not only did we serve these children nutritious meals but we offered them structured activities in a supervised environment.”

Richland County served as the center of operations for the program and also has the most highly developed network of sites for providing meals to at–risk children.

For example, in the summer of 2005 in Richland County, 14 AME Churches sponsored sites providing an average of 800 children each day with free lunch.

As summer ends, the AME Church will continue to work with the SCDSS through the After School Snack Program and the Food Pantries Program to acquire donated food for free.