Beginning June 5, the Greenfield Exempted Village School District will be serving lunches to any child 18 years old and younger.
It’s a program called Summer Tiger Bites and with the exception of weekends and July 3-4, the meals will be served Monday through Friday, June 5 through Aug. 4.
The locations of service each day are the colonnades on Fifth Street in Greenfield from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., the Buckskin Elementary playground from 11:30 a.m. to noon, and the Rainsboro Elementary parking lot from 12:45 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.
Children will be able to eat at the location or can pick up meals to take with them, which will not only include lunch for that day, but also breakfast for the next day. Parents may pick up meals for the children in the household during those times as well.
District Food Service Director Stephanie Lanning said all children 18 years old and younger are eligible. There are no applications and the children don’t have to live in the Greenfield School District to participate.
In her report at the April school board meeting, Lanning said the district was developing this food service program to help with food insecurity through the summer months. It’s something that the summer feeding program through Highland County Community Action helped alleviate for many years, but Lanning said that program will not be continued this year.
Also in that report to the school board, Lanning noted that 47 percent of students int he school district are eligible for free lunches, a number that underscores the need to help make certain that food insecurities are met.
The food service program is eligible for federal reimbursement through the USDA for each meal served.
Angela Shepherd is a correspondent for the Greenfield Exempted Village School District.
