Wednesday, January 5, 2011

DC Bureaucracy 1, Poor Kids 0: Hungry Kids Lose Afterschool Program | Education | Change.org

DC Bureaucracy 1, Poor Kids 0: Hungry Kids Lose Afterschool Program | Education | Change.org

DC Bureaucracy 1, Poor Kids 0: Hungry Kids Lose Afterschool Program

In Washington D.C. this week, a local nonprofit had to shut the doors of a popular afterschool program for low-income kids.

Why? Because nonprofit City Gate hasn't received any of the tens of thousands of dollars they've been promised from the city to give kids a safe place to go after school. They keep getting assurances from D.C. that the money will come, but it hasn't. City Gate can't pay their bills, the nonprofit's director, Rev. Lynn Bergfalk, told us today.

So on Monday, City Gate had to shut the doors of their afterschool program at the Merrick Center in southeast D.C. This means 40 kids in one of D.C.'s poorest neighborhoods lost a haven where they get homework help,