Thanks to a generous donor, the Union County YMCA will be able to serve meals to disadvantaged children this summer.

The YMCA has provided meals to children under the federal Summer Feeding Program which serves areas with a high number of children receiving free or reduced lunches at school. All children in the county qualify to receive the meals.

A staple of summer over the past 10 years, as many as 450 meals were distributed by the YMCA to churches and other participating organizations throughout the county. Many of these dropped out of the program this year for various reasons, placing the program in jeopardy.

YMCA CEO Scot Sandor was recently contacted by a donor who offered to pay up to $4,000 to keep the program going this year. He said the donor’s generosity will allow the YMCA to distribute the lunches.

“We thought we weren’t going to be able to do it, but we’ve had a donor step up and they’re going to provide funding to cover the difference between what the federal monies cover and the actual cost of operating the program,” Sandor said. “They’ve initially committed up to $4,000 and so organizations that keep children may contact us about participating in the program. They can contact us now and that will give us time to do the pre-operational visits and trainings.”

If all goes according to plan, the YMCA will begin distributing the meals on July 6. An announcement regarding the identity of the donor will be made at a later date.

One of the recipients of the YMCA’s meal distributions is Carlisle’s Summer Lunch and Activities program. It provides childrenwith two hours of activities — including lunch — Monday-Thursday in June and July.

Mayor Mary Ferguson Glenn welcomed the news of that the meal distributions would resume with some news of her own: a group of anonymous donors have agreed to pay for the meals for the Summer Lunch and Activities program until the YMCA’s distributions get underway.

“I was contacted by some people who were very concerned about the children of this area,” she said. “They had read about our problem in The Union Daily Times and said they wanted to make donations to sponsor our summer lunch program. The story in the paper brought that money to these children.”

Mrs. Glenn said the sponsors have asked to remain anonymous and she will honor their request. She thanked them for the help they given the children of the town.

The Summer Lunch and Activity program will get underway Wednesday at 11 a.m. Carlisle community children are welcome.

For more information about the Summer Lunch and Activities program contact the Carlisle Town Hall 427-1505. For more information about the YMCA’s summer meal program, call 427-0668.