About the only time there is family organization, and quiet, is at meal time.
Even if that family is a hungry bunch of Lely football players.
Athletes taking part in summer conditioning drills lineup for breakfast and lunch. Other students in the school’s construction program also are served meals Monday through Friday.
The numbers average 180 for breakfast and 195 for lunch, which are served Monday through Friday
They are part of the Collier County Parks & Recreation Department’s free meals program. Preparation is done at the kitchens in Golden Gate and Immokalee high schools, with deliveries to 44 sites. Golden Gate has 25 of the drop-offs, which includes Lely.
Each site qualifies because it has at least 50 percent of children, 18-and-under, in the reduced or free meals program during the school year. The funding is through a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and administered by the Florida Department of Education.
Jim Thomas, county Parks & Recreation athletic supervisor, has been involved with the program since it started 29 years ago.
Weekly, more than 16,000 kids eat lunch and more than 12,000 have breakfast, he said. “I began the program out in Immokalee and it grew and grew,” he said.
Now public schools, parks, churches, day care centers and camp programs take part.
“It is an outstanding program for our athletes and students,” said Steve Pricer, Lely head football coach. “It guarantees kids a nutritional meal twice a day that they might not get at home in the summer.”
BJ Johnson, who oversees food preparation at Golden Gate, has been involved for 20 years. Retired, she serves a volunteer “for a very worthy cause.”
Breakfast can include sausage biscuits, muffins, bagels and cream cheese and chicken biscuit, along with milk and juice. Lunch choices are ham and cheese sandwiches, chicken patties, chicken nuggets, hash browns, corn and cheeseburgers, with milk and juice.
Val Artman, coordinator at Golden Gate, also talked of the amazing growth and pleasure it is to be involved in the program.
“The kids are thrilled to see us,” she said. “One man came in with little kids and put his arms around a lunch person, Brad Byington, in gratitude.”
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