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Free lunches – and in some cases, morning or afternoon snacks – are available for anyone 18 and younger at nearly 20 sites throughout South Sound.
About 25 youngsters lined up for box lunches Thursday at the Rochester Boys & Girls Club, which has teamed up with the Thurston County Food Bank to provide summer lunches and afternoon snacks.
“Many of the kids who drop by are teenagers who come in to say ‘Hi’ and magically, it’s lunch time,” said branch director Christine Hoffmann.
A typical lunch included a package of pine nuts, a juice box, graham crackers, a turkey-and-cheese sandwich and a carton of milk. There also were lunches with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or tuna salad.
“I think they’re pretty good,” said 8-year-old Molli Graham.
Several of the programs are associated with day camps and summer playground programs, and most are funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Summer Food Service Program. There’s no requirement to provide proof of income or residency, and children don’t have to participate in the camps or programs to receive a meal, said Robert Coit, executive director of the Thurston County Food Bank.
“The staff know that, and they go to great lengths to make sure you’re welcome,” he said.
The federal summer lunch program was designed to battle hunger, especially in neighborhoods in which families can’t afford to buy enough food.
“In the county as a whole, there were roughly 14,000 children who were on the free and reduced lunch program,” Coit said.
During the school year, many of those children receive breakfast and lunch at their schools; some, including homeless students, are sent home from school with backpacks with emergency food to eat over the weekend.
But getting food to those kids during the summer isn’t easy.
“There is no big yellow bus in July and August, and that’s really a challenge,” Coit said.
That’s one of the reasons the food bank began a mobile program that delivers lunches along routes in Lacey, Olympia and Tumwater during the summer.
“Think of it as an ice cream truck,” Coit said. “A van that goes into a low-income neighborhood; you honk the horn and give out food for 15 minutes. That’s taking the food to where the kids are, versus expecting the kids to come to you.”
Lisa Pemberton: 360-754-5433 lpemberton@theolympian.com
