BATH

T here is such a thing as a free lunch in Bath again this summer.

For the third year, the Bath Parks and Recreation Department is offering a Summer Food Service Program, a federally funded program that offers Bath area children free meals.

And it has expanded the program, for a third year, now offering a second open site where children ages 2-18 can come to get a free meal, no questions asked. The times and meals are staggered in a way that six days out of the week children can get at least two free meals.

The Bath Area Food Bank has been a huge supporter of the Summer Food Service Program, said Cassandra Brown, the program’s coordinator for a second year. She said she loves being in the kitchen making the meals for the children, making sure they get the right balance of protein, fruit and vegetables, and milk through meals that will also appeal to them. The kids recently enjoyed some healthy banana muffins Brown made using “a good old family recipe right there, just multiplied by a lot.”

Having the ability to bake this summer, Brown said she didn’t see the point in buying pre-made muffins, “when I can, for less money, buy fresh blueberries and flour and sugar and eggs and milk, and make fresh muffins for these kids that are better for them.”

She instituted a menu at the sites — items like Taco Tuesdays and Thursday Crockpot Classics — to help get kids excited about a meal and so parents know not to send their child on days they won’t like the meal. Someone donated sole fish through the food bank, which Brown plans to try to oven-fry to make a fish filet. Also coming up is homemade macaroni and cheese. The camp kids get sandwiches on their field trip days.

Not everything she tries is a hit with the kids, but the yogurt parfait she served kids Wednesday during the summer day camp at Dike-Newell School got thumbs up from the children who lined up to pick out what fruits they’d have in their vanilla yogurt topped with granola.

“Not only am I feeding you something nutritious,” the children got to enjoy and participate in the making of their meal, Brown said, and “were making healthy decisions for themselves.”

And it provides ideas for healthy meals they can make at home.

The broccoli with ranch dressing they served earlier in the week, however, didn’t go over so well.

But not to worry, Brown planned to puree the broccoli into a cheese sauce for some Wednesday pizza stuffers.

Given the free and reduced lunch rates in Bath, she knows there is food instability. But, when kids line up to get meals, there are no questions asked about their socioeconomic situations. At the Summer Day Camp for example, the children may be there from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., so the meal program helps ensure the kids don’t go hungry. There are four different kinds of meals the program can serve and the USDA reimburses the Bath Parks and Recreation Department based on different rates for each.

Hannah Lewis, 8, of Bath, said she knows she should have four servings of fruit a day, which her mom taught her. She said she does gymnastics and figure skates, “so I need a lot of energy.”

“I’m a runner,” said Laney Crews, 8, of West Bath, who attends the Summer Day Camp along with Lewis, adding that unhealthy foods can slow her down before her track and cross country events.

Knowing there is food insecurity in Bath, the parks and recreation department started the program three summers ago trying to offer free meals just to its summer camp kids and taking baby steps, has expanded the program every year.

“There is a lot of food insecurity in Bath. We were never coming from a place of judgment,” Brown said. “We just want to make sure that the kids who are coming to this program are taken care of.”

For the open sites, now expanded to the YMCA in addition to the skate park, the free meals are not limited to kids from Bath, as long as they are ages 2-18.

She might send 15 meals to the new open meal service sites at the YMCA and maybe only four are served, but Brown said if even one child eats who would have been hungry, “it makes everything worth it.”

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, its Summer Food Service Program “was established to ensure that low-income children continue to receive nutritious meals when school is not in session. Free meals, that meet federal nutrition guidelines, are provided to all children 18 years old and under at approved SFSP sites in areas with significant concentrations of low-income children.”

“Children need healthy food all year long. During the school year, many children receive free and reduced-price breakfast and lunch through the School Breakfast and National School Lunch Programs,” the USDA website states. “When school lets out many of these children are at risk of hunger. Hunger is one of the most severe roadblocks to the learning process.

“Lack of nutrition during the summer months may set up a cycle for poor performance once school begins again and make children more prone to illness and other health issues,” the website added. “The SFSP is designed to fill that nutrition gap and make sure children get the nutritious meals they need.”

According to the “Measures of Growth in Focus 2014” report by the Maine Economic Growth Council, which looked at food insecurity for the first time as an indicator of economic prosperity, Maine’s food insecurity rate grew from 13.7 percent of households in 2008 to 14.9 percent in 2012. That 2012 rate “means that approximately 200,000 Maine residents lack consistent, affordable access to nutritious food,” and Feeding America reported in 2013 that nearly one in four Maine children are food insecure. The report notes that the 126th Legislature passed a bill requiring schools holding summer activities and in which more than half the students qualify for free or reduced lunch to offer the USDA’s Summer Food Services Program.

There are a dozen sites listed for summer meals served in the Mid-coast area. Find programs near you at www.whyhunger.org/findfood.

dmoore@timesrecord.com

No questions asked, children ages 2-18 get free meals this summer served at the following Bath locations:

•Bath Youth Meetinghouse & Skate Park

4 Old Brunswick Road

Snack: Tuesday-Saturday, 2 p.m.-5 p.m.

Dinner: Tuesday-Saturday, 5 p.m.-7 p.m.

•Bath Area Family YMCA

303 Centre St.

Breakfast: Monday- Friday, 8 a.m.-9 a.m.

Lunch: Monday-Friday, Noon-1 p.m.

*Children and teens enrolled in 7-week Summer Day Program at Dike-Newell School and Camp Xtreme Program at the Donald Small School have choice of free breakfast and lunch. Preschoolers in the enrichment program at the YMCA are served lunch.

For more information, call 443-8360.