Community organizations play a key role in Georgia schools districts’ summer meals

ATHENS, Ga. — Kids won’t go hungry in Clarke and most surrounding counties this year, thanks to the Athens Housing Authority, school districts in Clarke, Barrow and Madison counties and other agencies.

This year marks the 25th year of the Athens Housing Authority’s Summer Food Service Program, said Geraldine Clarke, director of resident support for the authority.

She’s run the program since the authority began running it in 1991, and in that time the program has served just over 850,000 lunches to Clarke County children; at more than 40,000 lunches per summer, they’ll soon top 1 million.

“It was a need in our community, and not just
in public housing, but the Athens community itself,” Clarke said.

The programs, generally paid for by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, are open to any child 18 and younger, regardless of income, and this year there will be more places than ever where children can get lunch.

There will even be lunch buses taking meals to various locations in Clarke County, something Madison County has done since 2013.

“It really took off in 2014,” said Madison County School Nutrition Director Barbara Adair. She expects to be serving as many as 600 meals a day, up from about 300 to 400 in 2013.

Adair could be speaking for nutrition directors in many counties when she describes the importance of the summer programs.

“I believe we have a lot of children that really rely on lunch at school,” she said. “There’s just a lot of hungry kids in the summer, and at least they can get one good meal a day.”

Madison County’s Lunch Bus heads out mid-mornings to sites mainly along U.S. Highway 72, stopping at the Farm Road Community, Colbert First Baptist Church, the Diamond Hill Trailer Park and other locations; lunch will also be served at Comer Elementary, the Madison County High School and other locations.

The program begins June 8 in Madison County, whose school year ends later than many surrounding counties. A full list of sites and times is posted at the Madison County School District website at http://www.madison.k12.ga.us/business-operations/schoolnutrition.

Athens Housing Authority lunch programs begins sooner, on May 26, the day after Memorial Day.

The Housing Authority will have its list of sites and times up on the web in about a week, Clarke said.