Gwinn schools will offer free school lunches this summer
Many kids depend on school lunches to help meet their food needs every day, but kids in the Gwinn Area Community Schools who need access to a healthy lunch will be able to get one at school throughout the summer.
The Summer Food Service Program is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It’s open to school districts with high concentrations of kids from low-income families. Gwinn is one of the few Upper Peninsula school districts that takes part in the program.
“Our district is low-income, and we wanted to make sure these kids get food all summer long as well as they do all winter, all fall and all spring,” Gwinn Area Community Schools food service director Barbie Ward-Thomas said. “Our Summer Food Service Program is free to children 18 years or younger.”
Gwinn High School, Sawyer Elementary and the Sawyer Community Center will host the meals. They’ll be served from noon to 12:30, every weekday from June 16th through August 22nd, except for July 4th.
“It’s not just for children in our community,” Ward-Thomas said. “It can be children visiting our community. It can be cousins. It can be relatives. Anybody that’s in the community at the time between 12 and 12:30 that want to have lunch with us, come and enjoy it.”
Anyone who’d like more information about the program is welcome to call Ward-Thomas at (906) 346-0313 or send her an email at bward@gwinn.k12.mi.us