By MICHAEL WHITNEY
Published June 13, 2012
Summer meal program expands to three locations
SNOHOMISH - The Snohomish School District is expanding its free summer lunch meal program to mobile units at the Snohomish Boys and Girls Club and the Circle H Mobile Home Park near the Three Lakes area.
The district also will serve breakfast and lunch at Snohomish High School over the summer.
The weekday program runs Monday, June 25 through Friday, Aug. 31 and every child under 18 is eligible. Children do not need to show identification or show proof of residency.
“We want all of our kids fed over the summer,” district spokeswoman Kristin Foley said.
To receive a meal, you do not need to be a Boys and Girls Club member or Circle H resident. Lunch will be served at the Boys and Girls Club from 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and at Circle H Mobile Home Park from noon to 12:15 p.m.
The district selected the Circle H site because kids living there have a hard time getting to Snohomish, Foley said. The mobile home park, with about 60 mobile homes, has a large number of families.
The district’s mobile meal unit at the Boys and Girls Club will be outside in the parking lot and the meal unit at Circle H, at 6413 123rd Ave. SE (123rd is off of Three Lakes Road, turn at NEPA Pallet) will be stationed at a concrete area just inside the park’s main entrance.
The Boys and Girls Club was an obvious choice, Foley said, because many kids hang out there and at the nearby skate park.
The district can offer the summer meal program because of the large number of kids who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches at two of its elementary schools, Foley said. At Central and Emerson elementary schools, 54 percent of the kids at each school qualify for the program.
The summer meal program doesn’t cost the district a dime. The district’s food partner, Sodexho, offers the food and then gets reimbursed from the state for providing the service, Foley said.
Volunteers hand out the food. The program wouldn’t be possible without volunteers helping out, Foley said.
The breakfasts include a buffet-style choice of eggs, pancakes and yogurt.
Kids gravitate toward pizza and cheeseburgers for lunch, but there are also vegetables and deli sandwiches up for grabs, Foley said. Milk is a staple at each meal.
The district first started a three-week summer meal program in 2010 and expanded it to breakfasts and lunches all summer long at the Maple Avenue Campus in 2011. The Maple Avenue Campus is turning into a construction zone soon for the new aquatic center, so the district moved the program to Snohomish High School.
Last summer, the program served 2,346 breakfasts and 5,854 lunches to area kids, Foley said.
To volunteer, contact Kristin Foley via e-mail at communications@sno.wednet.edu or call 360-563-7263.
