Children enjoy lunches at Himebaugh Lot
COSHOCTON – Thanks to a grant received by Kno-Ho-Co and the Department of Job and Family Services summer youth job program, children all around the city are able to get free lunches every day through the week. There are four locations where children, up to age 18, can get a lunch – Himebaugh Lot, Meadows, Heritage and Chestnut Crossing. Adults do not have to accompany children.
Kaitlyn Hammons is one of the youth helping through the summer. She goes to South Lawn School each morning and helps prepare about 120 lunches. Each location has different serving times so the food will be hot when it arrives. Hammons has to check the temperature of the lunches before they can be served. She said she is enjoying helping with the meals.
Hammons said that each lunch includes one fruit, one vegetable, a dairy product and protein. Milk is offered with the meals, but water is available if a child can’t drink milk. An example of a lunch is a shredded chicken sandwich, cantaloupe, green beans, animal crackers and chocolate milk. The children are given the same lunch, but if there is something a child doesn’t like, he/she can put it on the “sharing table” and another child can have it. All lunches are to be eaten at the site and not taken home.
Other foods that have been offered are hot dogs, pizza, tacos, and BBQ pork. William Johnson, from the Fatherhood Initiative, also helps serve at the Himebaugh Lot. He said there are several meals, so the children have something different each day and ever two weeks or so, the meals are repeated. Johnson said that with school being out, many children may not get a lunch and this service makes sure children get at least one meal a day.
The free meals will continue, Monday through Friday, until Aug. 11.
Free lunches for children and teens schedule
- Meadows Apartments Outreach: 823 Magnolia, 11:30 a.m. to noon meal service
- Heritage Apartments: 1520 North St, 11:30 a.m. to noon meal service
- Chestnut Crossing Apartments: 2350 Glenview Way, 12:30 to 1 p.m. meal service
- Coshocton City Himebaugh Park: 310 S. Seventh St., 12:30 to 1 p.m. meal service
Category: People & Places
