Ironwood schools prepares for summer lunch program

By RICHARD JENKINS

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Ironwood — With the school year ending in the coming weeks, the Ironwood Area Schools’ food service department is gearing up for another summer of feeding area kids through the district’s summer lunch program.

Beginning roughly a week after the end of the school year, the Meet Up and Eat Up summer lunch program will run from Monday, June 17 to Friday, Aug. 16. Lunches won’t be served on the Fourth of July, as well as the Thursday and Friday of Festival Ironwood.

“It’s going to be Monday through Friday this year, we’re adding that extra day,” said Mary Hampston Kusz, the district’s food services director.

Lunches will be held from 11 a.m. to noon at the pavilion in Ironwood’s Depot Park.

As the program is a federal program, Hampston Kusz said it provides free meals to any kids and teens that show up — regardless of where they live.

“You do not have to be an Ironwood resident,” she said.

In the past she told the Daily Globe that extends to kids from other states who may be visiting relatives in the area.

“Bring your kids, bring your grandkids, bring your nieces and nephews, whatever,” she said Friday.

Unlike last year, Hampston Kusz said the program won’t be able to provide busing to this year’s lunches for those living elsewhere in the county.

There is a small fee for adults who want to eat lunch with their children.

Unlike some other places around the country, Hampston Kusz said the Ironwood program tries to give the kids some choices in their lunches and the meals rotate between popular items like pizza, hot dogs and hamburgers, walking tacos, chicken nuggets, subs and a variety of side dishes.

She is also working to partner with other groups — such as the Ironwood Carnegie Library and local 4-H organization — in the area to provide programming during the lunches. Hampston Kusz said other groups can contact her if they are interested in getting involved.

There will also likely be weekly drawings each Friday — where eating lunch each day will earn an entry into the drawing for a small prize — as well as a final drawing for a season ski pass to Mt. Zion.

This is the eighth year the district has offered free summer lunches, according to Hampston Kusz.

“It’s been very popular,” she said.