A farm to school lunch from Apple Seeds Inc. commonly includes items like herb roasted chicken from Little Portions Monastery, sautéed organic sugar snap peas from Brannon Mountain Farms, spinach and salad greens from Charlie’s Produce and strawberry shortcake with berries from Dickey Farms.
They say there’s no such thing as a free lunch. That’s usually true.
Here in Fayetteville, however, the folks at Owl Creek Elementary school will serve free lunches for children 18 years and younger for a majority of the summer.
The summer lunch program is made possible by the federally funded National School Lunch Program, and Owl Creek has been participating for several years.
Adam Simmons, head of the school district’s child nutrition service said that participation in the program each summer has been high.
“We’re right across from the Boys and Girls Club, so we get a lot of kids from over there,” he said. “It has been pretty popular.”
This year, local organization Apple Seeds Inc. has partnered with the school to test a new Farm to School pilot program, with a goal to educate participants about local foods and healthy eating.
Simmons said the program is funded by a SSARS “bridge grant” intended to bridge the gap from local farmers to the cafeteria trays of local schools.
“Any time we can buy local meats or local produce, we buy local,” Simmons said.
The free lunch program will be offered weekdays between 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. from Monday, June 4 through Friday, August 3. No meals will be served July 3-5.
Owl Creek School is located at 365 N. Rupple Road.
This is a great program!
Dang that looks delicious.
Nice.
Wow, that is not the lunch I grew up with. Lucky kids.
I am so glad to see that the program is back for another summer. I am sure that it helps out a lot of children in the area. I do wish that there was another program on the other side of town for those who can not afford to drive so far.
I’m not a huge fan of government waste and no this is not “free.” Tax dollars find these programs and it is not just the food we are buying it is also the labor, oversight, utilities, usage, inspections etc. I could possibly get on board for a program to feed low income kids who’s parents are working during the summer. However, this is open to all kids regardless of their financial situation or whether a parent is home to fix them a meal. Is this really where we should be spending tax dollars?
Do you seriously think that affluent parents, or parents who can afford to feed and watch their kids over the summer are taking their kids over there to scam a free lunch?! Seriously?! And if there are a handful of people doing that, is it worth getting rid of a program that feeds kids who would otherwise get a pop-tart for lunch if they’re lucky?
I just knew someone would come into this thread and complain about feeding kids who need food when they’re away from school and you win. Congratulations.
Stefani, you should be ashamed of yourself.
She can’t help it– she’s a Consultant at Americans for Prosperity, so she has to say things like that.
yes, i do think it is a great place to spend our tax dollars. this is a wonderful service that provides healthy locally sourced meals and food education for our students, and supports our local farmers.
kudos to the fayetteville public schools for being a part of this!
Pretty brave stance to take on not feeding kids.
Yes, above all else, we should be spending our tax dollars on ensuring our children have food.
If there were only some way to funnel more money to the Pentagon! Seriously, are you worried about the vast percentage of the national budget being squandered by the Federal School Lunch Program? The better we feed all students now the healthier and more productive they will remain throughout their lives. It would be a shame, when upon entering the workforce, the only blood the 1% will be able to squeeze from their future workforce might require significant infusions of insulin. All children regardless of socioeconomic status simply perform better at school if they are not hungry– I say feed them all. I bet we could feed 1,000 children two meals a day from kindergarten through high school for the cost of a single drone. Sally Struthers has the numbers from the GAO.
VandeIay– I agree with you on most every other issue and regard your contributions to this sight as insightful and pretty funny, too. I just respectfully disagree with you on this one issue. If we do not address the link between diet and health for school-aged children our medical costs will soon eclipse our military spending. Dick Cheney’s pool of domestic viable organ donors will dwindle to a few thousand. I don’t want to live in that future, forever on the run, hiding my pancreas and kidneys from an elite Secret Service organ retrieval team, which is what will happen if he and Rummy can’t afford to go overseas.
John, you are too kind. I think we agree on this topic. No sarcasm intended.
Yep, this is the budget battle to fight. Skip the handouts to oil companies and Wall Street – We’ve got evil, commie children getting free food. They should be working in a shirt factory instead of taking handouts from us hard working Americans.
Jerry, judging by your post I’ll take a leap and assume you can read. Try reading the entirety of my comments. Or just keep blinders on as I’m sure the small minded appreciate it as it prevents them from having to think through an issue too much. Cheap thrills as they say.
Stefani, my reply was to your insistence on turning a great story into a complaint about government spending. So again, go pick on a real issue and leave the kids alone.
When I read this story, I thought, “I can’t imagine how, but someone is going to find some way to complain about this great idea.” Congrats Flyer, you never disappoint.