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http://www.blunt.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=1EAF999F-5E8C-4BF3-842A-875B82CE3FB2 Columbia Tribune: Blunt promises work on child nutrition, mental health during Boys & Girls Clubs visit 2016-12-27 2016 2016-12 Republican House MO Roy Blunt B000575 www.blunt.senate.gov     legacy Rudi Keller Personal income in Columbia and Boone County is higher than in the state as a whole. So is poverty. At the Boys & Girls Clubs of Columbia, leaders are acutely aware of that gap as they attempt to provide an affordable, safe place for after-school and summer day programs. The club serves about 700 children each year, but many more need and want to participate, Executive Director Valorie Livingston said during U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt’s tour of the main service site on North Seventh Street. “Since we have been here, we’ve had a standing waiting list at every site of kids that need and want to attend a Boys & Girls Club,” Livingston said. Blunt visited the club as part of his annual year-end visits to food banks and other organizations that provide support for lower-income families. The club served 47,000 meals in 2015, provides educational enhancement programs in music and technology and will begin construction in January on a 14,000-square-foot expansion that will double its current space. The visits, Blunt said, are intended to highlight what “these kind of community service organizations provide and why do we need them in places where you see lots of affluence. But if you look very closely, you will see lots of people still struggling.” The fundraising program to pay for the building concluded in October. Paying to keep it open and provide services means finding additional ongoing donations, said Joe Miller, past president and co-chair of the capital campaign. The current budget is about $1.5 million annually. It costs about $2,500 per child to provide services. The club charges $20 per semester for membership, Miller said. “When we are serving 700 kids, it takes a lot of manpower and a lot of resources to keep the lights on, keep the heat on, so that is the challenge for us year over year is just raising those operational dollars,” Miller said. Statistics that measure poverty in Columbia show 50 percent of Columbia Public Schools students eat a free or reduced-price lunch and 24.4 percent of city residents have incomes below the federal poverty threshold. Per capita income was $26,773 in 2015, according to the Census Bureau, $514 above the state per capita income, but the poverty rate statewide is 14.8 percent. “If you said 50 percent of kids in school are on the free and reduced-price lunch programs and that is one of the highest in the state, that would be a big surprise to a lot of people,” Blunt said. Blunt told club staff and board members that he is focusing on two areas that can support their work. The first is expanding child food programs to summer months, he said. The club could be a distribution point for food, he said. The second is mental health programs, he said, and the club can be a place for children to receive support for their problems or help understanding a parent’s illness. “We are trying to look for ways to expand that footprint so mental health is treated like all other health issues,” Blunt said. “We are about 50 years behind, frankly, in the mental health field.” The expanded club building will be ready by Labor Day, and the goal is to attract teenagers with a full-size gym, complete kitchen and music recording facilities. “The high school kids are all around us, but they don’t come in,” Livingston said. Click here to read more. 1 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z