As summer break continues, Hastings Family Service (HFS) is working to ensure local children have access to
healthy meals while school is out of session.
Through HFS Summer Meals for Kids program, free lunches are available to children living within Hastings School District 200.
KDWA recently spoke with Hastings Family Service Programs Director Amy Tix and Food Service Manager Kyle Bultinck to learn more about the program.
Tix says, “Folks just drive up, and they get three lunches per kiddo.”
Families call ahead to schedule appointments and easily pick up meals through a drive-through distribution line.
Organizers say the lunches are designed to provide a balanced meal while offering variety throughout the summer.
Bultinck explained, “We have a fruit, cheese stick, bag of chips and some protein source—so an Uncrustable or mac and cheese, or a kind of microwavable Chef Boyardee. We’re trying to offer some diversity if we’re able to – how my kids like to eat. Like a balance of meals, but also like my kids like Uncrustables, but not every single day of Uncrustables, so a little bit of mac and cheese as well.”
The summer meals for kids program got off to a strong start. Volunteers distributed more than 550 lunches during its first week of operation.
Bultinck says, “And so far last week we did 551 bags, 66 households, give or take, and then we also brought some to the YMCA, and we brought some to the community center for their kids program there.”
Volunteers helped pack and distribute the lunches, and some local Girl Scouts even decorated the lunch bags with drawings and dad jokes for the kids.
Organizers say the goal is simple: get food into the hands of children who need it during the summer months.
Bultinck emphasized, “Sign up. It’s open to people in the district, right? If you have the address. So whether or not you may need it, it’s school lunches for kids, and that’s, I think, the most important thing for us is ‘How do we get food in the hands of kids?’ So that was kind of our big goal, and just more the better. Like, I, we have the capacity to do it, and I want to feed as many as we can here, so.”
Unlike the food shelf program, the Summer Meals for Kids program is not income-based. Any family living in Hastings School District 200 with children ages 17 and under can participate.
Bultinck says, “We want to make sure that maybe those that aren’t coming to the food shelves, don’t (miss) an opportunity to feed their kids.”
Tix explained, “Different from our food shelf, is this is not an income-qualified program. The TEFAP Food Shelf is; they have to self-declare income eligibility. This is not.”
The program runs weekdays through August 28. Pickup is available from 11am to 12:30pm at Hastings Family Service. Call or schedule by June 22 for July appointments. Families can register by calling 651-437-7134 or by using the Free Meals for Kids app.
[Click the soundbite to listen to the report.]