Joy Neufeld of Soup's On says they have run the lunch program in Steinbach for many years and they are now planning on expanding it into the rural areas.

Joy Neufeld serves a hot dog at the Taste Of Summer Charity Barbecue which raised $1,381.60 for Soup's On"We offer schools complete lunches, we offer lunch supplies, and in some instances where a teacher has noticed a child has come without a breakfast, they are able to get a yogurt cup or a granola bar or something to hold them over until lunch time. Now we want to reach out to all of the Hanover School Division."

Neufeld says their lunch program costs them roughly $2 per student per lunch. She adds the addition of schools like Niverville, Blumenort, Kleefeld, and New Bothwell, will dramatically increase how much support Soup's On will need.

"Because we offer supplies, we don't always offer a full lunch, it is an estimate to say we are supporting approximately 350 students each week within the City of Steinbach. Once we expand that to the entire school division, that could be upwards of 500 or 600 students each week."

Our first Taste Of Summer Charity Barbecue of the year was held Wednesday afternoon and we were able to raise $1,381.60 for Soup's On. Neufeld says al of that money will be going toward the School Lunch Program. She says they are very excited about the prospect of serving more students and are taking a bit of a leap of faith that the rest of the necessary funds will come in.