Freeport Community Services and others who don’t want to see kids go hungry in the summertime have been preparing and distributing 60-68 lunches a day, five days a week.

That’s a slight uptick in the Summer Free Lunch for Kids program, according to Sarah Lundin, who is on her first year on the job as community services coordinator for Freeport Community Services. It’s the fourth year of the program.

“It’s up a little – maybe 10 a week,” Lundin said. “It could be that there’s more of a need, it could be that this has been around for a while and people are more aware of it.”

The lunch program began June 22 and ends Aug. 28 – just before the start of school. Freeport Community Services purchases the food from Sysco, and then is reimbursed for the cost through the Maine Department of Education School Food Services Summer Food Program.

Though anyone under the age of 19 can get the free food – no questions asked – the Department of Education stipulates that the food be distributed to an “identified pocket of need,” Lundin said. Village View and Wildewood Acres, affordable housing apartment complexes, are two such locations. Much of the food goes to Mast Landing School, because there is a summer camp there.

“Every morning we start preparing the lunches at around 7:30,” Lundin said. “Volunteers make the sandwiches and wash the vegetables and fruit. We also offer a meat option, which changes daily.”

But children, after all, do not live by bread alone. Especially in the summer, when school’s out, they need things to do. Having other kids around fits that bill perfectly, Lundin said.

“The Girl Scouts go out and do activities with the children,” she said. “They make their own silly putty or goop after a meal. The kids come running when we show up. They get their friends.”

Carey Coffin of Windham, a leader of three Girl Scouts troops in that town, comes to Freeport once a week with her niece, Savannah, to play with the kids at Wildewood Acres and Village View. Coffin is a staffer with the Girl Scouts of Maine Free Lunch program. The program is funded through the United Way, Coffin said.

“My niece and I do crafts for an hour with them, Coffin said. “Or whatever the kids are into. We go into the common area, where the lunch program is.”

Coffin said that the goal from the Girl Scouts’ perspective is twofold: Help children enjoy their free lunches and spread the word of Girl Scouts.

The Summer Free Lunch for Kids program that Freeport Community Services does is a great thing, Coffin said.

“We’ve all struggled in life,” she said. “It’s great for families out there who are in need.”

For more information on the free lunch, call Lundin at 865-3985, ext. 205.