CINCINNATI — Organizations around the state have been working to make sure school aged children are fed while many are learning remotely. One program is making it a whole lot easier on parents to keep their children fed.

​​Usually when you go to the library, you come to get a book. You may not expect to get a weeks worth of free meals there, too. But the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library is making that happen through their meal distribution program.

“It’s so important to be serving the community during these pandemic time because children really relied on school to serve them meals," said Kaya Burgin, the Avondale branch manager.

For Burgin, serving the community she grew up in is meaningful, especially during this pandemic.

“It means the world to me, especially to come back to my neighborhood after being away fro multiple years," she said. "So, it is great to see how Avondale has advanced and where it’s going.”

Parents say programs like this are crucial to keeping their kids fed each day right now.

“It helps because it’s hard when you have three on virtual learning and you can’t work," mother Ashan Moore said.

The program is every Monday from 3:00 p.m. to 5 p.m. at select Library branches. Meals can be for children up to 18 or up to 21 if they have an individualize education program. Each box includes seven snacks and seven dinners for the week, which are all shelf stable and require little or no preparation. In just its first week, the library says it handed out nearly 5,000 meals. Parents say they are grateful for the library and all programs like it in the Cincinnati area that have kept their children fed during the pandemic.

“Thankful to them we’ve been making it through but without them I don’t know how people would have made it through," Moore said.