SALISBURY — It’s for the kids.

The Salisbury Rowan Association of Realtors held its seventh annual golf tournament and contributed $3,500 to the RSS School Nutrition Program and its Yum Yum Bus.

Carla Rose, CEO with the Salisbury Rowan Realtors, said this amount brings their total to $18,000 for the seven years they have partnered with the local program.

The tournament, which was held Sept. 13 at The Revival at the Crescent in Salisbury, was co-sponsored by Jonathan McCullough with Farm Bureau Insurance and Terry Whitesell with Novus Home Mortgage.

“It wouldn’t be possible without our sponsorships,” Rose said.

Rob Bean, who served as chair of the golf tournament committee, said he does his best “to raise as much money as possible and play a little golf,” to which Rose said he helps organize and is one of the tournament players.

Bean said he is “proud to put some money back into the community that helps me out so much.”

The tournament has continued to grow, Rose said, noting they had 100 players with teams on the waiting list.

“It was phenomenal this year,” she said. “It’s the largest we’ve ever had, and we have a good time.”

Samantha Allen, president of the Salisbury Rowan Realtors, said she grew up in this county and feels that it is “extremely important to give back to the community. I think that the biggest basis of our county is our upcoming youth.”

The money raised goes into the nutrition program so that children can be fed during the summer months, said Lisa Altmann, director of school nutrition, as she stressed that it’s a vital program and just because students aren’t in school “does not mean that there’s no food insecurities. We are the bridge between the end of school and the beginning of school.”

Prices have risen and they have definitely felt the effects of this, but it hasn’t stopped them as the community partnerships, such as this one “really goes a long way for us,” she said.

The program has two different models, said Altmann. One is renting trucks that  go into different housing authorities, the YMCA, some church camps and summer school during which time the students come out, get their meals and take them back inside the school.

The second model, she said, is the mobile meals which includes their Yum Yum Bus, vans and trucks which go into different neighborhoods, and the children can actually get on the bus and eat their meal there.

With the mobile units, they also partner with the Rowan Library which brings their bookmobile and with Bread Riot that brings produce and hands it out to the families, she said.

“The Realtors Association has really, really been imperative to help us get more supplies to really support the kids,” said Altmann.

The meals program cannot start immediately when school ends because they have to end the 10-month calendar, she said, but “make it a priority to start as soon as we can.” And they have to get ready for the start of the new year, and therefore have to end it about a week before school starts.

The meals they serve are prepared by the cafeteria staff, thus giving them the opportunity to have summer employment, Altmann said, along with some bus drivers.

“So it’s a really good benefit for them as well,” she said.

Being a part of the USDA, the food is a federal program, so they are reimbursed for the meals that are served.  

“That’s typically the only money we have,” said Altmann. “So, again, partnerships with community partners really help to bridge that.”

The donation from the Realtors Association will go to any expense they need, noting that they have gotten more books in the past.

A dream of Altmann’s is to have WiFi on the bus and be able to put up screens and do additional things involving literacy so the students can read and they can be helped.

“We have a new technology person, so we have been really talking that through because that’s a dream that I’ve had,” she said. And she wants to see that dream come true. The children are our future, she added.

Taking the Yum Yum Bus into neighborhoods helps in additional ways, Altmann said, as she pointed out the area where they have warmers and coolers to hold the food and the children can eat right there.

The children that eat don’t have to be students. “It can be any child from 3-18,” she said.

And if parents would feel more comfortable, they can get on the bus and sit with the children, but they would not be able to eat as the meals are only for children.

The bus also helps the small children get adjusted to getting on a bus and not be scared of it when school starts, said Altmann.

“So it’s like this program just benefits so much,” she said.

One issue they did have to work through and has been solved was the language barrier, and they now have someone who is bilingual on each bus.

Altmann is passionate about her job as is evident when she talks about going out to see the children during the summer. She told the story of being at a career event and telling a group of sixth graders that they were her favorite part of her job. “You are exactly why I do what I do,” she told them, which is also how her staff feels.

“It is from our hearts. We have laughed with these kids, we have cried with these kids. It makes us happy that we don’t lose them between spring and fall when we get to see them,” she said.

She also shared about a manager who takes his toolbox along with him when he is on the truck and fixes the children’s bikes while they eat their lunch.

This program is more than just feeding the children physically, said Rose, seeing how relationships are built between the children and those that give them books and deliver the meals.

“It’s about feeding their mind and feeding their spirit,” she said. “It’s about planting the seeds for what comes in the future and they remember that. They remember compassion and it’s those little things.”