FARMINGTON – More than a dozen children and adults received a free lunch at Bjorn Park on Monday in a new program cooperative between a church and the school district this summer.
Before noon, volunteers from Old South First Congregational Church set up a tent canopy, chairs and a game for the children at the park while school cafeteria staff stuffed each small lunch bag with a ham sandwich, carrot sticks, and an apple. Milk cartons were also packed into coolers and transported by Chris Magri, co-chair of the church’s outreach committee, from the school to the park a few miles away at the intersection of High Street and Farmington Falls Road.
This is the first summer W.G. Mallett School is providing lunches, funded by the federal Summer Food Service Program, to low-income families at two sites in Farmington during a five-week period, from June 29 to July 30.
The school district has provided breakfast and lunch for students attending the extended year program, but this is the first year the program is open to adults, thanks to a cooperative effort between the school district and the church. While the Summer Food Service Program pays for the children’s meals, the church members are picking up the cost for adults accompanying children to meals at either the school or park site.
Three residents joined about 50 students for breakfast at Mallett School on Monday, said the district’s food service director, Cheryl Ellis. Students also received lunch, along with more than a dozen children and adults at the park. The location was chosen and approved by town officials to make it more convenient for residents at the southern end of town to receive a meal.
“The church wanted to get more kids to eat lunch,” Ellis said. A similar free meal program has been held at Kineowatha Park in Wilton for three or four years, she said. Cascade Brook School is another site for free meals but is considered too far from most residential neighborhoods in Farmington.
For Meghann Shepard and her son Aidan, 9, of Farmington, the free meals are the much needed boost they need. After Shepard got her cashier job at Walmart, her monthly food stamp allotment decreased by $150.
While her son takes classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and receives breakfast and lunch at the school on those days, “It’s been a real help,” Shepard said, that free meals will be available the other days of the week.
Aidan and his friend played in the obstacle course set up by church volunteers who provided the added activity to lunch in the park. Meghann Shepard smiled as she watched them play and eat their lunches.
Small groups of kids with an adult or two in tow walked into the park and were handed lunches too.
Mallett School offers a free public lunch Monday through Thursday from noon to 12:20 p.m., while the church’s volunteers will provide lunch at Bjorn Park on Monday and Wednesday from noon to 12:20 p.m.
The breakfast program will run during the same five-week period, with free breakfasts offered to the community at Mallett School, Monday through Thursday from 9 to 9:15 a.m.
This is how to love thy neighbor.
It makes a difference for the givers and the receivers.
Maybe you could extend the hours just a bit. Kids have summer school and don’t get home till 12:25 at that side of town. I’m sure you could get some more kids with a empty belly if you just extend the time. And thank you for doing this for our community!
I’m pretty sure that what you mean by “summer school” is what’s now called the Extended Year Program, and as mentioned above, those students are given lunch before they go home :)
On extending the time: the “official” lunch ends at 12:20 but our volunteers wouldn’t stop serving and leave at that time unless no one had shown up to eat. We have to close up shop and leave the park no later than 1:00, so if you arrive at 12:30 or even 12:40 you’re likely to get a meal.