LAURA L. VALENTI
The Laclede County Literacy Council, despite having lost its federal funding provided in the past by AmeriCorps, continues to serve the local community with a smaller staff and fewer volunteer tutors.
On Nov. 13, they celebrated the graduation of 11 new high school equivalent (HiSet) students, and on Dec. 6, they will be entering the local fight against hunger with an event known as a MealPack.
“This was a serious campaign in the planning stages before the recent government shutdown but now the continuing battle over SNAP funds has made it even more critical,” Careen Barsby, the Literacy Council’s lead tutor explained. “Several of our staff members and volunteers helped out at a MealPack at St. Louis’ AmeriCorps event held the last few years on 9/11’s Day of Service. There we learned about how to do this, producing meal packs that were then distributed by local food banks. In St. Louis, we produced meal packs in one day to feed 400,000, and now we are planning on doing our first MealPack event in here in Lebanon, with a plan to produce meal packs to provide 10,000 meals.”
For more on this story, see Saturday's LCR.
Valenti is a volunteer at the Laclede Literacy Council. She teaches Enlgish and Spanish.
