TULSA, Okla. – As the summer holidays approach, parents of school-aged children have the opportunity to provide their children with nutritious meals this summer, at no cost.
During the pandemic years, many families got used to the “grab and go” concept when it came to picking up summer meals. But that changes this year.
FOX23 spent the lunch hour with Bradyn Powell, Union Public Schools’ associate director of child nutrition, who said this summer they are going back to their traditional summer food service program.
With the school year upon us, Powell wants to make sure no child goes hungry this summer.
“We want them to have that quality meal, some of which are the only meals they get every day, and we want to make it as nutritious as possible because we know it’s not nutrition until it’s in your body,” he said.
Powell said they are here to support families not just during the school year, but year round.
Beginning June 5, Union Public Schools will offer its summer food service program for free to any child 18 or younger. Meals must be taken on site. Catering next door will no longer be offered.
We caught up with single mother of five, Ondrea Kingfisher Hawkins, who was at home Thursday afternoon with her three adopted sons King, David and Darius.
She also has two foster children. She noted that she sees the return to the traditional summer meal program as a win-win for parents.
“I like that we’re going back to the kids being able to go to school to socialize so they have the two aspects of getting nutrients that they need as well as being able to see some kids, that they went to school with,” Hawkins noted.
We also reached out to Tulsa Public Schools and learned that they will launch their summer school food service program on June 1st and Owasso Public Schools will launch their program on May 30th.
We also learned that the Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma has a summer feeding program.
For more information on their summer feeding sites or pantry sites, just click here.
