By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – The Alabaster City School System’s child nutrition department will be significantly expanding its summer feeding program this year after the program has seen heavy interest from the community over the past few years.

ACS Child Nutrition Manager Heather McDermott said the department began looking at ways to expand the summer feeding program after seeing participation grow in the program over the past two summers. “We did great, but I knew we could do more,” McDermott said. “One of the statistics I like to throw out a lot is that there are 9 million school lunches served in the United States during the school year, but there are only about 3 million served in the summer. That’s a big gap, and we are trying to fill it.”

Through the summer feeding program the past two years, ACS has opened its Meadow View Elementary School campus each day for children and adults to eat breakfast and lunch. Children eat free through the program and adults eat for a few dollars per meal.

This summer, ACS will again host the program at MVES, but will also expand to Thompson Intermediate School, the Alabaster YMCA, Kids First Awareness Community Center and local churches, McDermott said.

As of April 5, ACS had not yet finalized which churches will host the summer feeding program.

During its March 14 meeting, the Alabaster Board of Education voted unanimously to accept a $41,550 bid from The Bus Center to purchase a new bus to deliver food to all summer feeding program sites.

The bus purchase will be covered by a $50,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham and the United Way of Central Alabama.

“We really feel like TIS will be a more central site,” McDermott said. “We are still working with local churches, and a few have shown some interest.”

The summer feeding program, which is funded by federal grants, will operate on weekdays from May 31-Aug. 5. Breakfast will be served at all sites from 7:30-8:30 a.m., and lunch will be served from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Kids 18 and younger eat for free, and adults can eat breakfast for $2 and lunch for $4.

Any churches interested in hosting the summer feeding program should contact McDermott at 663-8460.