Not only did our Red Riot Baseball team win South Portland’s first state championship in baseball since 1952 last weekend in dramatic fashion, South Portland High School alum Steven Smith, finished fourth in the men’s 20K race walk at the Olympic Trials on Saturday. His time was 1:33:54 (approximately 7:33 pace per mile), which is faster than many can run the 12.4 mile distance.

Steven is a South Portland native and graduated from SPHS in 2017. He had a tremendous college career at West Virginia University Tech as well. Steven has also been a part of our South Portland City Adult Track team. Fellow City Track team member Holly Corbett wrote, “Steven is an extremely hard worker, but more importantly he is incredibly humble and a genuinely nice person.”

Congratulations Steven and go Red Riots.

Summer meals in SoPo

The South Portland School Department is participating in the Summer Food Service Program 2021. Meals will be provided to all children without charge and are the same for all children regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability, and there will be no discrimination in the course of the meal service. Meals will be provided, on a first-come, first-serve basis.

The Summer Food Service Program is a federally-funded, state-administered program ensuring that children continue to receive nutritious meals when school is not in session.

What: The program offers both breakfast and lunch

Date: June 21 through Aug. 20 (no meals July 5 for holiday)

Time: Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The South Portland School Nutrition Program offers free summer meals to all students, persons 18 years or younger, at the following locations (look for the big, yellow bus, the bus driver will hand you your meal):

Brick Hill (Brickhill Avenue, South Portland)

Redbank Village (Community Center: 95 Macarthur Circle West, South Portland)

Henley Field (Henley Street, South Portland)

Quality Inn (738 Main St., South Portland)

Kaler Elementary (165 Kelsey St., South Portland)

Ken Kunin is superintendent of schools for South Portland. He can be reached at kuninke@spsd.org.