Partnership Gives Lunches to Carlsbad Kids

By Philip K. Ireland, North County Times

(June 25, 2005 -- Carlsbad, CA)  Corn dogs, applesauce and green beans washed down with milk.  Summertime, and the eating is easy.

Thanks to a partnership between the Carlsbad Unified School District and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Carlsbad, about 80 local kids on summer break are still getting lunch and a snack each day at the Clubs' Roosevelt Street building.

The program began Monday and will continue through August 26, said MIchelle Johnson, Carlsbad Unified's director of food services.

Part of the National School Lunch Program, which supplies lunches to children of low-income parents, the Summer Food Service program provides "nutritious meals to children in low-income areas during the summer months when school is not in session," according to school district documents.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Carlsbad qualify for the program because more than half of the area's residents are eligible for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program administered by the school district, Johnson said.

The federally backed summer lunch program targets youths ages 2-18, although of the clubs' clientele fall between the ages of 6-14, said Jim Salvia, Program Coordinator of the Carlsbad club.

School district cafeteria workers prepare the food each morning for delivery to the clubs.  Turkey, bologna, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are common, Johnson said.  Hot entrees include pizza, burritos, and chicken teriyaka and rice.  Chips, oven-baked potatoes and fruit cups round out the meals, Johnson said.

"The kids eat it, so it must be good," said Salvia, who called the program "a blessing" for the children, some of whom attend the summer camp from 7 am to 6 pm.  "The kids recognize it as the same lunch they get at school," he said.  "But the fish sticks are coming up.  We'll see how that one will fly."

The lunches are provided by the school district to the children at the Boys & Girls Clubs at no charge.  The district submits requests for reimbursement to the federal National School Lunch Program at the rate of $2.24 per meal, said Johnson, who estimated the cost of each meal at between 80 cents and a dollar, plus labor.

Over the course of the summer, the district will have prepared almost 4,000 meals and submitted reimbursement requests totaling $8,780.  When school district staff submitted the Summer Food Service program to the Carlsbad Unified school board for approval June 8, they estimated that the program would net the district about $5,000 in revenue, district documents show.

last summer, the first the district partnered with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Carlsbad, the net gain to the district was between $3,000 and $4,000, Johnson said.  The district prepared 70 meals each day of the program last summer, Johnson said.