We had a quite a few parents who said to us, “At least I know my child is going to get fed on Tuesdays.”

Submitted by Judy Hillegas,
Director of the Everett Free Library

The Everett Free Library participated in the summer food service program in conjunction with its summer reading program in 2015. After taking the training, for us it was easy. We served breakfast and lunch only on the activity days that the students attended at the library. We sponsored an open program so that anyone under 18 could eat and also so that we didn’t have to individually qualify each person. If over 50% of the students in your school district qualify, everyone under 18 gets free meals. Since we only served meals once a week, we didn’t vary our menu much. For breakfast we had bagels or a choice of two cereals, an orange or an apple, and milk. We did offer butter and cream cheese for the bagels. For lunch we had cold ham or turkey and cheese sandwiches, applesauce, baby carrots, and milk. We had mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard for on the sandwiches. We made the meals as the participants walked through the line. We had a quite a few parents who said to us, “At least I know my child is going to get fed on Tuesdays.” We will be continuing this program this year and have chosen to serve a snack and lunch.

Learn more about the program and how you can help.