901 Arts Fall 2024 After School Arts Program is off to a great start this year, with 25 students enrolled and attending for group art and drumming instruction, private music tutoring, homework help, and outside time. One thing we decided to add to this Fall's term is a thirty minute supper service, during which our students get to learn and practice social skills in a group setting, led by our lead teaching artist for that day, and joined by our Program Assistants, Program Manager, and sometimes even our Director. Our original intention was to provide the meals for this service through the same provider we use for our snack service, but during the process of enrolling to receive the meals, we encountered an unfortunate amount of bureaucratic obstacles — first just trying to find out which permits, inspections, and waivers we need to apply for (and in some cases pay for), and then realizing that the timeline for receiving approval was not going to give us the opportunity to provide the food our families asked us for. And that's where you come in! We had such great success this summer when our community rallied together to support our Youthworkers with icy cold popsicles and beverages, that we thought we'd try our luck one more time, and see if we can't inspire folks to contribute to our supper service in a variety of ways! We ourselves were inspired by a couple of our newer families, who have already, without being asked, offered and delivered donations of snacks, pizza, and even spaghetti to our students. We are looking for support to feed up to 15 students per day a rich variety of foods! And you are welcome to contribute in a variety of ways, through donating meals you drop off directly or have delivered, and/or gift cards to selected providers that we can combine and utilize to meet our needs. Choose whichever options and whatever frequency you can afford — every little bit helps. We'll supplement gaps using our own budget as much as we can. We love having this community meal time to get to know our students better and to help them grow into wonderful citizens of our neighborhood, our city, and our world.