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The Boys & Girls Club of Oceanside’s new food truck, funded primarily through the county’s K-12 Community Grants Program, is complete and will soon be in use in the community.
Club officials unveiled the new truck and menu at a community barbecue in Oceanside on June 1. The truck, called Lunchbox, will soon be on the road providing free, fresh, healthy meals to children in the area surrounding the club.
The truck is part of the club’s “Cooking Choices and Opportunities for Kids” program, which provides cooking and job readiness skills to young people ages 14 to 18. Eventually, they can apply for paid internships helping prepare meals for the club’s kids or helping with catering for the Lunchbox Truck.
The grant also helped fund Boys & Girls Club of Oceanside Youth’s CanTEEN food truck mentorship program and summer feeding program that feeds more than 600 children. The goal of the CanTEEN program was to provide at-risk teens with the skills and mentorship connections they need to build the confidence they need to become active members of San Diego’s restaurant community. By the end of the year-long program, a total of 55 youth had participated in the Boys & Girls Club of Oceanside’s Culinary Arts Mentorship Program. Youth who participated in the program saw improvements in their academics, career readiness and community connections.
San Diego County and the San Diego District Attorney’s Office awarded the grant to Boys & Girls Club of Oceanside as part of the K-12 Community Grants Program. This opportunity was made possible by court-imposed penalties in connection with the District Attorney’s successful prosecution of one of the nation’s largest fraud schemes targeting state funds for K-12 education.. Additional funding and collaboration on the project was provided by the City of Oceanside, the Parker Foundation, First Citizens Bank and the Buffalo Wild Wings Foundation.
“Their dedication to this program allows us to address food insecurity while investing in young people’s futures by providing them with workforce readiness and workplace experience,” said Jody Diamond, CEO of the Oceanside Boys & Girls Clubs.
