Lennie’s patrons buy beer for local charity

You drink and the kids eat.\nThat was the mind-set at Lennie’s, 1795 E. 10th St., Tuesday night, when all money from the day’s beer sales was donated to the Community Kitchen’s Summer Breakfast program. Community Kitchen director Vicky Pierce said the program benefits children in six low-income neighborhoods around Bloomington.\n“Most of the children eat two meals a day at school (during the school year),” Pierce said. “In the summer they are at a nutritional disadvantage, and we want to make sure their needs are met.”\nThe Community Kitchen, 917 S. Rogers St., delivers 240 sack breakfasts a day to playgrounds, apartments and trailers throughout the city. The sack breakfasts contain four elements: milk, a grain component (bagel or cereal), a fruit component (fresh fruit or 100 percent juice) and an extra item such as yogurt.\nThis is the 11th year of the Summer Breakfast Program. Last year, Lennie’s raised $900 for the program, which yielded about 600 breakfasts, Pierce said. This year, Lennie’s raised approximately $1,100, Lennie’s Manager Michael Layman said.\nIndianapolis resident and IU alumnus Brent Bockelman ate on Tuesday at Lennie’s and was unaware of the fundraiser.\n“Now that I do know (about the fundraiser), I will drink twice as much,” Bockelman said.\nBloomington Resident Virgil Sauter hung around outside Lennie’s after he and three friends finished dining. They had been to Lennie’s before but came specifically for the fundraiser Tuesday. Sauter and his friends spent $25 on beer, money that will end up funding the Breakfast Program.\n“Good beer, good pizza, good cause,” Sauter said.