Darcy Rowley, left, and Melissa Colson work at the concession stand at the Kathy Dowling Aquatic Center as they administer the free school lunches. Almost 7,000 meals have been served so far this summer.
Tom Russo | Daily Reporter
HANCOCK COUNTY – As children frolicked under the sprinklers at Greenfield’s Splash Pad Friday afternoon, Melissa Colson sat beneath a patio umbrella with a cooler full of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, apples and milk.
It was nearly lunchtime, and hungry kids would be showing up any minute to grab a free meal.
Colson is among the many food service workers serving free food through the summer meals program hosted by Greenfield-Central Community School Corp., the only school system in Hancock County to host such a program.
“So far we have served almost 7,000 meals in a little over a month and a half, including breakfast and lunch,” said LeDonna Hood, who coordinates the summer meals program for the Greenfield-Central schools.
Hood said this year’s numbers are about on track with last summer, when roughly 11,000 meals were served in all.
The program runs June 5 -July 21 this year, and is open to children 18 and under. Most of the meals are served hot, except for the occasional cold sandwich.
Lunch is served at the local high school, junior high school and the concession stand by the Splash Pad at the Kathy Dowling Aquatics Center.
Breakfast is also served at the high school and junior high school.
Hood said the Splash Pad site is especially popular, possibly due to a large number of kids stopping by after swim lessons and because it gives families something fun to do after they eat.
The meal giveaway is run by the school corporation’s food service staff and funded through a federal grant.
The Summer Food Service Program is a federal nutrition program funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and administered by the Indiana Department of Education.
The program is designed to meet the needs of low-income children in areas where children may have limited access to good nutrition.
For more than 40 years, the federal program has provided children ages 18 and under with access to free, nutritious meals and snacks during the summer months.
Meals are being served at more than 1,000 locations throughout Indiana this year.
Officials from Southern Hancock schools in New Palestine said the corporation doesn’t qualify for providing summer meals at a local site, since it doesn’t meet the threshold of having at least 50% of students taking part in free and reduced meals.
Communications director Craig Smith said district officials sent out letters to Southern Hancock families who qualify for the summer lunch program – approximately 27% of all families – providing information on where food is available.
Hood said the Greenfield-Central schools are happy to serve all children in need of a meal throughout the summer.
“We want to be there to feed our kids, and we’ll do that by any means possible,” she said, adding that kids and parents seem genuinely thankful for the help.
“Many of them say they’re very happy and feel very blessed,” said Hood, who has been coordinating the summer program the past 13 years.
“Everybody is trying to get back on track with the economy and with putting COVID behind us, so there’s a real need out there,” she said.
For her part, Colson really enjoys seeing the children who happily show up for lunch or breakfast each day.
“They all seem so happy and the parents are so appreciative,” said Colson, who helps serve between 40 to 100 kids at the Splash Pad each day.
“There’s one family of three little blonde kids plus one in a stroller who stop by each day with their stuffed animals. They always have to shove their toys up on the counter for us to see. It feels great to be able to help them out,” she said.
Staff reporter Kristy Deer contributed to this story.
