Summer lunch programs feed kids

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — The summer lunch program in Grants feeds between 900-1,000 kids a day, five days a week through the end of July, Pauline Barker, food services director for the Grants-Cibola County School District, said.

In its third year after taking the program over from the city of Grants, Barker said the program has the ability to provide hot lunches and sack lunches at the schools, as well as providing sack lunches at Riverwalk Park.

Not only does the school district food service program serve lunches, it serves breakfasts as well, but on a lessor scale.

This year's program started June 4 and lasts until July 27.

"School starts in the fall on Aug. 17, and that end date gives us time to prepare for the start of school," Barker said.

Anyone, adult or child, whether in summer school or not, will be served on request, Barker said.

"It's all about feeding the kids," she said. "The bottom line is a lot of these kids do not have the luxury of having a meal at home, their parents do not want them cooking at home alone and a lot are latchkey kids.

"That's what this is all about," she said, "feeding kids."

Kids and teens from 2-18 can eat breakfast or lunch, or both, for free she said.

Parents or adults may have lunch for a $3 fee, she said.

"This is a USDA program, and we cannot be compensated for meals to adults, so we have to charge what it costs to prepare a meal," she said.

The program provides sack lunches at Riverwalk Park, part of the agreement when the school district took the program over, because the city did not want those kids who would be there during the day to miss out on having meal, Barker said.

Lunch schedule
The schools offering lunches, and the type and times are:

• Bluewater Elementary School, sack lunch, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
  
• Cubero Elementary School, hot lunch, 11: 30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
  
• Milan Elementary school, hot lunch, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
  
• Mountain View Elementary School, hot lunch, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
  
• San Rafael Elementary School, sack lunch, 11: 30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
  
• Riverwalk Park, sack lunch, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Breakfast is served from 7:30-8:30 a.m., at the schools, except at Bluewater and San Rafael.

A sack breakfast will soon begin at Los Alamitos Middle School, Mt. Taylor and Laguna-Acoma Middle/High School, she said.

About 60,000 half-pints of milk are provided to youth during the summer program. It is provided for breakfast and lunch every day, Barker said.

Some examples of hot lunches are: Spaghetti with meat sauce, pepperoni pizza, hot turkey sandwiches, green chili enchiladas and oven fried chicken. Often salads, rolls and a dessert are included in both hot and sack lunches.

For sack lunches, many of the items are preheated before being wrapped in foil and are served still warm, including: Chicken tenders, barbecue beef sandwiches, cold ham and cheese sandwiches, fried chicken and popcorn chicken.

Professionals
"The city wanted us to take over the program and I was happy to do that," Barker said.

"We are the professionals, this is our business feeding kids. We do this as a living nine months a year and all we did was extend our work during summer."

The city would hire the cafeteria staffs to prepare and serve the summer food program meals, this way, the staff simply keeps working.

Barker said her cafeteria staffs have the first choice to work in the summer program and if there are not enough people to provide the program, she hires additional people from the city.

To contact reporter Jim Tiffin, call (505) 287-2197 or fax (505) 287-2581.