School lunch program revived

Thanks to a last-minute grant and Methodist Church volunteers, the Baker School District will begin providing free lunches for Baker County children beginning Monday.

Jean Dean, the Baker School District’s food services cook/manager, announced Tuesday that the district will be offering a summer lunch program after all.

She said the district received a $3,000 grant Monday from the Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon program to allow the district to prepare the meals through the USDA’s National School Lunch program.

“This has enabled us to pull it back together at the very last minute,” Dean said.

All children 18 and younger are eligible for the free meals, which will be served from noon to 12:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday at the Baker United Methodist Church, at 1919 Second St. Adults can buy meals for $2.50 each. The program will run June 21 through Aug. 19.

The bag lunches will be taken from the high school to the Methodist Church where volunteers will distribute the food.

The menu features the same meals being served at summer school, such as cheeseburgers, ham sandwiches and corn dogs along with fruits, vegetables and milk, Dean said.

“It’s a good lunch,” she said. “The hot food is served in foil packets and it remains hot ... and the milk remains cold.”

 Dean said an earlier call for volunteers resulted in just two Methodist Church members coming forward. When she learned she’d received the grant, she went back to the Methodists, who were happy to help out.

Although the program is starting a week later than originally planned, Dean said it will continue a week later in the summer.

“We’re just happy to be able to do it,” she said. “We’ll serve lunches right up to the week before school starts.”

The district hopes to expand the program to Haines and possibly Keating, she added.

“We encourage people to come,” Dean said. “The sign of a good program is good participation — the food’s good, we have good helpers and the church has a heart full of love.”