The Alice Aycock Poe Center for Health Education is a non-profit SNAP Ed implementing agency dedicated to educating and empowering North Carolina’s children, youth and their families to make choices that increase positive health behaviors. Since establishing its Raleigh facility in 1991, the Poe Center has provided health education to over one million children throughout North Carolina.
The Poe Center was Wake County Public School System’s first open summer feeding site for free, healthy lunches, and is partnering with Child Nutrition Services for the fourth year. Other agencies and community volunteers are getting on board and helping to attract more children and their families: Volunteer Zumba and Yoga instructors; Delta Dental; Muddy the Mudcat, mascot of our local minor league baseball team; Marbles Children’s Museum; and, NC State Mascots Mr. and Ms. Wuf are all graciously volunteering time and effort to enhance the Poe Center’s summer feeding program, encourage kids to follow MyPlate, and get their 60 minutes of physical activity a day. During the summer of 2015 Poe served over 800 lunches on their PlayWELL Park. In the first two weeks of Poe’s 2016 Summer Feeding Program almost 200 children received a free lunch.
Additionally, this summer Poe Center staff and interns are partnering with other agencies to provide SNAP Ed and activities at other newly established Wake County open feeding sites. Poe Center hopes to expand their SNAP Ed programming into other North Carolina counties summer feeding sites in 2017!