Northeast Ohio Boys & Girls Clubs Close, Offering Meals For Kids

CLEVELAND — Boys & Girls Clubs around Cleveland, Lorain, Sandusky and Akron will close for at least three weeks, officials announced. Many clubs will turn into meal distribution sites.

Ron Soeder, interim president and CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Ohio, said the decision to close was a difficult one. The closures will be re-evaluated on April 6. This week, Gov. Mike DeWine ordered all Ohio schools closed for at least three weeks and banned gatherings of 100 people or more.

“We are following the governor’s prudent guidelines for preventing the spread of COVID-19 and consider this to be the responsible thing to do,” Soeder said. “At the same time, this is difficult.”

To help families during the shutdown, Soeder said many clubs will begin offering meals to children. Here's what Soder said clubs will do in different regions:

• Cleveland: BGCNEO will offer free meals for pickup by members and their families between noon and 1 p.m. Monday through Friday at the following locations:
  • Broadway, 6114 Broadway Ave., Cleveland, 44127
  • King Kennedy, 2561 E. 59th St.,Cleveland 44104
  • Saint Luke’s, 2705 Martin Luther King Jr., Cleveland 44104.
• Sandusky: The Club Teen Center, 2112 Cleveland Road, Sandusky, will be one of 12 sites throughout the city from noon to 1 p.m. weekdays.
  • Boys & Girls Clubs of Erie County, along with OHgo and more than 20 other community organizations and agencies, will be distributing breakfast and lunch bags provided by Sandusky City Schools.
  • Boys & Girls Clubs and three other after school programs will have dinner bags filled with food for the week, for those who participate in after school programs and typically have dinner at that program.
  • These bags will be distributed to club kids when they come to pick up lunch at the teen center and at the city recreation department, 222 Meigs St.
  • For those club members who are not able to get to one of these sites, the bags will be available at other locations. BGCEC staff will be manning the distribution at the above two sites. Sandusky Transit is providing free transportation for the next three weeks to anyone in the city.
• Lorain County and Akron: Clubs are working in concert with the local school districts to ensure members have access to meals.

“We know many of the kids who come to our Clubs depend on us for a hot meal, and we are doing everything we can to ensure that is not taken away from them, even temporarily,” Soeder said.