For information and enrollment please contact Ms. Donata Martin at 978-534-3145.

Teens from the The Spanish American Center, Inc. after school program recently volunteered at Market Basket collecting donations for the The Salvation Army. SAC was a recipient of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Afterschool and Out-of-School Time (ASOST) grant. UWNCM thanks you for Living United!

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GEEK IS GLAM

Saturday, October 15, 2022
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
For Girls in Grades 4-8

WORCESTER POLYTECHNICAL INSTITUTE

OCTOBER,2022

We had 10 girls attend this tech-friendly, discovery program.  They had a great time. This is the first time a group of girls from SAC have attended!!

For information and enrollment applications, please email us at:

sacafterschool@gmail.com

Summer,  2022

Past programs – call us for current options. 978-534-3145 Ask for Aurea Casiano, Assistant to the Director.

October, 2016

Spring, 2016

The Spanish-American Center is pleased to announce the development/expansion of our community nutrition programs to now include several after-school meal and healthy supplemental snack sites.

Funded by a grant from The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education,  and the US Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, this program (otherwise known as CACFP – Child and Adult Care Food Program), will enable the Spanish American Center to prepare and transport meals to Leominster and Fitchburg meal sites (including our own Crossroads Program, located at the Spanish American Center in our new Higgins Activity Center and Cocina.)

The six local agencies/sites are: Cleghorn Neighborhood Center, 2 Taekwondo sites (Leominster and Fitchburg), MOC  (Montachusett Opportunity Council) Homework Help Center at Green Acres, MOC Family Resource Center and the YMCA in Leominster, plus our own aftter-school Crossroads program.

 

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For more about the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP),  please click on the logo below:

 

“CACFP provides aid to child and adult care institutions and family or group day care homes for the provision of nutritious foods that contribute to the wellness, healthy growth, and development of young children, and the health and wellness of older adults and chronically impaired disabled persons.CACFP is a federally-funded program administered by States. Through CACFP, more than 3.3 million children and 120,000 adults receive nutritious meals and snacks each day as part of the day care they receive. ”                        (Source USDA CACFP Web Page).

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Local press coverage:

The Spanish Center Afterschool Nutrition Programs were recently featured in an article in the Fitchburg Sentinel and Enterprise:       

When classes end, dinners begin

April 14, 2016

by Peter Jasinski

LEOMINSTER — For years, the Spanish American Center has been a resource for empty stomachs in the city and beyond, but a new initiative has bolstered center’s ability to feed hungry students.

Partnering with the Department of Education’s Child and Adult Care Food Program, the center has been able to offer free after-school meals to local students Wednesdays and Thursdays each week.

“I sat down with Susan O’Brien, our grant writer, about 1 1/2 years ago to discuss the idea,” said Neddy Latimer, the center’s executive director. “We wanted to really be able to offer something that would be after school.”

Since it began March 21, the meal program has been offering dinners and snacks at four sites in Leominster and Fitchburg, and the center is expanding to three more.

As of Wednesday, O’Brien estimated that as many as 150 children are being fed through the center’s new program.

Latimer said the students’ ages vary.

“It could be middle school students at age 11 to ones that could be as old as 18,” she said.

The two days a week that meals are served to students by the Spanish American Center also coincides with the same two days the center holds an after-school program intended to prepare high school students for their lives after graduation.

“The hope is that they come for the meal but stay for the other resources we offer,” said Christina Gonzalez, a center volunteer who coordinates the after-school programs.

Aside from being served meals, the students coming to the center are also able to take part in leadership workshops and career planning.

“It’s important because we need to know how to present ourselves in front of a future boss if we want a job,” said 13-year-old Sky View Middle School student Devee-Ana Douglas, who takes part in the program with her two sisters.

The Spanish American Center also is continuing to offer other programs like its summer meals program and the food the center delivers to homeless families living at the Days Inn in Leominster.

A soup kitchen offered by the center in partnership with Ginny’s Helping Hands from 4 -5 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays has also grown since it started in January. According to Latimer, the soup kitchen averages as many as 25 meals served on a given day.

Follow Peter Jasinski on Twitter and Tout @PeterJasinski53

 

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