GREENFIELD — The annual summer meals program will be offered across town as an effort to help feed kids 18 and under, while promoting healthy habits.
The “Eat 4 Free” program, run through Greenfield Public Schools, will begin June 26 at six different sites and will run through Aug. 18.
Kids will be able to get free meals Monday through Friday, every workday of the summer aside from July 4. Free breakfast will run from 8 to 9 a.m. and free lunch will go from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The sites in Greenfield include the YMCA, Greenfield Gardens, Oak Courts, Greenfield High School, Leyden Woods and the Green River Swimming and Recreation Area. The program will not run on July 4.
In addition to these sites, kids can also get free lunch at the Greenfield Farmers Market from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturdays, running from July 1 to Aug. 12.
Special to this year, there will be several incentives for kids to eat breakfast through the program, including the chance to win a bicycle.
There will be three bicycles, plus helmets, that will be given away this year — two of them are 20-inch bikes and the other is a 24-inch mountain bike.
Particularly encouraged at Greenfield Gardens, Oak Courts and Leyden Woods, kids who get breakfast through the summer meals program will be given a raffle ticket. Naturally the more tickets a child gets, the greater the chance of winning one of the bikes, or other prizes like a Frisbee.
Jessica Wilson, the community outreach coordinator for the Greenfield Summer Meals Program, reminisced about getting her first bike when growing up in the county and the value of it.
“They have a universal appeal,” Wilson said. “They’re great for summer and most of fall. It offer kids a couple of other benefits, one is exercise and the other is the opportunity to be outside as much as possible.”
Wilson also noted the importance a bike can play in transportation, which at large, continues to be a concern for some Franklin County residents.
“We really do have a need in Greenfield, and in Franklin County in general, for people to be able to get around at a very low cost,” Wilson said.