City of Olean Youth & Recreation Department

CACFP Success Story

City of Olean Youth & Recreation Department: Cattaraugus, New York

 

The City of Olean Youth & Recreation Department runs their afterschool program at the former St. John’s Catholic Elementary School. Along with the afterschool program, they host a youth basketball league for fourth to sixth graders and special events, such as holiday parties, recreation contests, and clinics. Twenty students attend the afterschool program daily, and the youth basketball league averages from eighty to one hundred kids each year.

The City of Olean Youth & Recreation has been participating in CACFP since 2009. They got involved with CACFP thanks to their local state Senator, Cathy Young, and their local youth bureau. Before enrolling in CACFP, the afterschool program didn’t offer snacks to their students. However, now as Youth and Recreation Coordinator, Kris Shewairy, states “CACFP has allowed our program to become more comprehensive with a healthy snack given along with physical activity.”

The snacks provided to the students are purchased from a local BJ’s Wholesale Club. The site manager and Shewairy make monthly shopping visits to get snacks, which typically consist of fruits, milk, pretzels, whole grain rich bagels, and crackers. The site manager is responsible for organizing, storing, and setting up the snacks. The afterschool program has a refrigerator and a freezer for storing cold items before the snacks are prepared in the old school cafeteria.

Kris Shewairy urges afterschool programs to enroll in CACFP as “many of the kids are hungry and have not eaten anything since lunch.” For many eligible sites, like the City of Olean Youth & Recreation program, CACFP provides a chance to serve healthy snacks for kids to enjoy after lunch.