Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S.

Now available for the fourth year, the meals are funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service program, which is the same agency that provides money for free and reduced-price school lunch programs, and administered through the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

Although the program is open to all children, it is geared toward those who come from low-income or food-insecure families, said Eileen Nichols, the market master.

“Our target is to make sure that kids who are at risk of hunger have access to healthy meals during the summer,” she said. “We’ve gone from averaging 90 kids to this past year (averaging) 150 at each meal. We’d like to increase that. We have the capacity to do it, and we know the kids are out there.”

Nichols buys produce for the kids

The program also ensures that market vendors are successful because Nichols buys produce for the kids’ meals directly from them, and children learn to love healthy foods such as zucchini, which is often served as “zoodles” after being run through a spiralizer machine, she said.

(The free kids’ meal program) is one of our very favorite things that we do during the summer, she said.

In addition to Saturdays, the market will serve free kids’ meals from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays and from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursdays. The program will run through Sept. 14.

The Joplin School District also will offer free breakfast and lunch to children younger than 18 in a service administered under the same federal program, said Rick Kenkel, director of child nutrition for the district. Breakfast will generally be served from 8 to 9 a.m.; lunch will be served from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., he said.

Webb City High Food offers free meals for kids

Once you enter your address, we’ll show you all the places that are currently open in Webb City, including PJ Fresh (11570 Hwy FF) or Tropical Smoothie Cafe (3102 East 7th Street). When you’re on a business’ menu page, you’ll be able to see their operating hours. In Webb City, a few restaurants and stores allow customers to pick up their takeout orders. To browse the pickup options in Webb City, make sure to toggle to ‘Pickup’.

The following schools will be open for meals through Friday, June 29: Columbia, Cecil Floyd, Irving, Soaring Heights, and McKinley elementary schools, North Middle School, and Joplin High School. They will be open for summer school, but any child can eat there regardless of whether they attend summer school, where they live, or how much their family makes, Kenkel said.

West Central Elementary School will be open weekdays for breakfast and lunch from Monday, July 2, through Wednesday, Aug. 15. The 2018-19 school year begins on Thursday, Aug. 16.

“We’ve had (as few as) five families participate in the past, so we’d love to see others participate,” Kenkel said.

Go there if you want

There will be a Webb City Farmers Market from 9 a.m. until noon today at the market pavilion at the South Main Street entrance to King Jack Park.

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