🏃 Dreaming of school teams | Morning Newsletter

Good morning, Philly.

Did you know that not many Philadelphia-area schools have even one extracurricular program? Local officials have been prioritizing a well-rounded education for all students. Now, one city school is dreaming of a track team.

And the Trump administration has cut a program that gave millions to food pantries. Local experts take a look at how it impacts Pennsylvania.

— Sam Stewart ([email protected])

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While 20 Philadelphia School District schools and five city charters now offer free before- and after-school programming, some have few opportunities after school, if any.

🏃 Steel Elementary, in Nicetown, is a small K-8 that doesn’t have families who can pay for extras, or apply for grants to make them happen. It has a few clubs, but others have disappeared.

🏃 Last school year, Mark Macyk, a middle grades English teacher, and Claire Sitarz, a behavioral health counselor at the school, made the call: they were making some kind of team happen, no matter what.

🏃 “These are good kids, and they need something to do,” said Macyk. “A school this small and this challenging, they don’t have the room to take on different identities here, but a team gives them that.”

🏃 Sitarz got the tentative green light this winter for a Philadelphia School District middle grades track team.

The Inquirer’s Kristen A. Graham dug deeper into Steel’s mission to create an after school team.

Philabundance, the region’s largest food bank, is staring down an 18% drop in what it can spend on food next fiscal year.

🍎 Federal cuts to food banks have left organizations that fight hunger across Pennsylvania grappling with how to provide for those most in need after the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced earlier this month that the $470 million Local Food Purchase Assistance program would be eliminated.

🍎 In Pennsylvania, state officials said the end of that program means a loss of $13 million statewide.

🍎 “That 18% gap is huge and we have to try to fill that with donated foods and donated funds,” Philabundance CEO Loree Jones said.

Katie Bernard and Julia Terruso took a closer look at how cutting the program impacts food banks across the state.

A former Eagles player is offering scholarships and experiences to single-parent families through his nonprofit, the Impact Foundation. Who is it?

A) DeSean Jackson

B) Seth Joyner

C) Brian Dawkins

D) Michael Lewis

Think you know? Check your answer.

🗓️ Planning: The best things to do in Philadelphia this week and weekend, including a Broadway musical and a local cocktail festival.

🍪 Craving: Famous 4th Street Cookie Co., which has been Philadelphia’s hometown cookie for over 45 years.

⚾ Building: Your ideal Phillies lineup ahead of opening day — find out what our writers think about it.

🥘 Learning: For the first time, Camden schools are sending meals home for students fasting for Ramadan.

Hint: The fearsome heavyweight who lost the “Rumble in the Jungle” to Muhammad Ali before his inspiring second act as a 45-year-old champion and successful businessman. He recently died at 76.

FORAGER GENOME

Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out!

And cheers to Isabella B., who solved Monday’s anagram: John’s Water Ice! Among Philly’s oldest water ice companies, John’s will add locations this spring in South Philadelphia and Logan Square.

🎶 Renowned classical pianist Lang Lang performs during his recital of Schumann’s Kreisleriana and Chopin mazurkas in the Kimmel Center’s Marian Anderson Hall in Philadelphia.

👋🏽 That’s all for now, Philly. Have a good one!

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