Beaver Area school official wins hero award for feeding hungry children
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Beaver Area schools food director Ryan Wilson volunteers at North Hills Community Outreach food bank in Allison Park.
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Before Ryan Wilson took the helm of Beaver Area public schools' food service, nearly one in six students went without free or reduced-price meals each summer.
Since then, he has organized the distribution of 43,000 summer meals, donated 74,000 meals to pantries and won three national grants for feeding hungry children in Beaver County.
In recognition of his work, Mr. Wilson was among eight "Heroes of Everyday Life" recognized June 9 in Washington, D.C., by the Sodexo Foundation, the charitable arm of Sodexo Inc. that supports innovative programs to help children and families in the United States who are at risk of hunger.
When Mr. Wilson joined the Beaver Area School District's Sodexo food-service branch in 2004, he recognized an unaddressed problem in the district, which encompasses Beaver, Bridgewater, Brighton and Vanport.
A minority of students in the otherwise affluent district who receive reduced-price meals at school went home each afternoon -- and each summer -- without the nutrition and nourishment they were guaranteed in the cafeteria.
"I could recognize that they were hungry from the time they came in in the morning," he said. "There's a lot of hours that pass before they come back to school."
Mr. Wilson's background is in hospital food service, so he first familiarized himself with student food-assistance schemes.
The Backpack Program, in which inconspicuous packs of canned food are distributed to students each week during the school day, fit well in an environment where children could worry about appearances.
"There are a lot of families out there that don't take charity because of the stigma," Mr. Wilson said.
First Published July 7, 2011 12:00 am
