Karl Maasdam & Jesse Sowa, May 11, 2003
People young and old scurried about the Grace Center at Grace Lutheran Church filling brown paper bags with goodies and drinks, while others spread peanut butter and jelly on hundreds of pieces of bread laying in front of them. If it looked as if lunch was being prepared for a family of 1,000, it wasn't far from the truth.
The Incredible Lunch Project began as a goal for Sara Gelser's Sunday school class of middle-schoolers at the church. Sunday afternoon, the idea became reality as about 30 volunteers gathered to prepare 950 brown-bag lunches for children out of school today due to budget cuts, as well as for anyone who is hungry in the community.
Gelser, the Corvallis School Board president, was reminded of the need for the lunches at a school board meeting last year. A woman working at Garfield Elementary School spoke up during a board meeting to tell the members that students receiving free and reduced-price lunches during school days would not have those meals on weekdays when the schools were taking a budget-balancing day off.
Gelser's Sunday school class took on the project and helped collect donations from the church congregation, local business and the community. They hoped to have all the lunches ready for distribution in just a few hours Sunday. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. today, those lunches will be available in the parking lots at Garfield, Jefferson, Franklin, Lincoln, Hoover and Wilson Elementary schools, Cheldelin Middle School and the joint area outside Adams Elementary School, Westland Middle School and the Corvallis School District administrative office.