City summer lunch program serves more than 940 meals in eight weeks

Published 1:39 pm Tuesday, September 2, 2014

School lunch programs ended when school was out for the summer and for the third year, the City of Redmond teen program took the charge of making sure youth in Redmond had food while class was not in session.

This year, in partnership with Open Kitchen, a community-based meal program out of Redmond United Methodist Church, the city’s teen program helped to make sure children, youth and families had lunch.

Working with Hopelink to obtain staples such as  bread, treats, fruit and spreads, Open Kitchen worked with the city’s recreation staff to get food out to Sunset Gardens park.

Tuesday through Thursday, the recreation staff offered a fun activity starting at 11:30 a.m. and then everyone enjoyed lunch together at noon. It was an opportunity for children to enjoy and share a meal. Families from around the area came and participated in the activities and meals.

Ken Wong, teen administrator for the City of Redmond, said they received comments from participants complimenting the program, activities and food.

“This has been a great program to make sure that needy children have food,” Wong said. “Just because school is out and they don’t get free or reduced lunch anymore does not mean they are not hungry. We worked with Open Kitchen to make the program more available to families this year and we saw the value.”

More than 940 lunches were served during the eight weeks the program was in session. There was a regular group of folks who attended on a regular basis and others who heard about it throughout the summer.

Open Kitchen provided volunteers who made the nutritious sack lunches that were distributed each week. The organization has been offering a dinner for any community member in need of a hot meal for more than six months on Wednesday nights from 5-7 p.m. at Redmond United Methodist Church. The program is volunteer based and is always looking for help with cooking or serving or donations.