An activity that encourages adults to stay fit is financially benefiting a program that provides nutrition to needy children.
McMinnville City Triathlon organizers have donated $4,000 to the FUEL (Full Uv Emmaeus Love) program, which benefits children whose main source of food may be the lunch they receive at school.
“I’m one of the organizers who helped bring the McMinnville City Triathlon back to our town,” said Lisa Miller, during a presentation to the Warren County School Board on Tuesday night. “We’ve worked really hard to bring this back. This is our second year. The city of McMinnville was very helpful to us, as well as the county. We have several generous sponsors that make this event possible.”
In order to pass that generosity onto others, organizers donate the proceeds from the event to an organization that benefits the community.
“We always decide where to donate the money,” said Miller of herself and 10 other organizers. “This year, I asked them to donate the money to the FUEL program. I see what an important program it is, being a school teacher and knowing these children have something to eat when they go home on the weekend. We are very excited to be able to present a $4,000 donation to the FUEL program.”
School officials say there are children in Warren County who do not eat between lunch on Friday and breakfast on Monday. FUEL programs target these children and discreetly place bags of food in their backpacks on Friday afternoons. The bags are filled with items such as juice, cereal bars, peanut butter crackers, cheese crackers, pudding, applesauce, cookies and gummies.
Director of Schools Bobby Cox accepted the check stating, “We are very appreciative of this donation. Thank you.”
Cox says all elementary schools in the county have some sort of food-based program, such as FUEL, to benefit students and those are community funded.
“These programs are really not funded by us,” he said. “They are funded by the community and run by different organizations, churches or individuals. When Lisa Miller told me about this donation, she said they wanted us to spread it out to all the schools and that’s why the donation came to us. We are going to cut a check to each school and they can help out with those programs. There are eight elementary schools and each will receive $500 to purchase additional food for their program.”
McMinnville City Triathlon Committee members are Matt Feno, Bobby Kirby, Freddy Hoover, Paige Northcutt, Carlene Brown, Sally Pack, Mike Neiderhouser, Jimmy Haley, Scott McCord, Jim Carden, and Miller.