HELENA — Serving up burgers and hot dogs, the Helena Public School's food service director, Robert Worthy, is winding down for the school year, but his work is far from over.
"There's nothing worse than the last day of school, and a kid says what am I supposed to eat tomorrow," he said. "It makes you feel like, 'Oh man – what can I do? What can I do to make that happen."
Worthy runs the district's free summer meal program, which provides various options for free breakfasts and lunches around Helena.
"Some of them are in a school, some are in a park, some are in the parking lot of a school," Worthy said.
This year, the program will be dishing out meals for one week less than last year, and they expect to serve around 80,000 meals at 11 sites.
Each meal costs the district around $1.70, and the entire program costs almost $300,000 in food and labor.
Worthy said, "It's something that the school district doesn't have to do, but we chose to do it because nobody else can do it."
The summer meal program is more than what meets the eye - it provides kids with crucial food to fuel their nutrition.
"I have families that will actually send us letters at the end of the school year saying, 'My husband and I both work. We've got five kids, and [with] how much food costs right now, we have to decide to buy kids new shoes for next school year or do I get them food for the summertime," Worthy said.
The program is available for all kids aged one to eighteen, and the meals come with an entree, fruit, vegetables, and milk.
Registration is now open and required for anyone who wants to participate in the program.
"All you got to do is once, and once you're in, it tells us if you have any allergies, what sites you're going to be at, how many kids you have," Worthy said. "It can reduce our food waste."
So far, 240 families with roughly 1,000 kids have already registered for this summer's program, and they expect to see between 2,500 and 3,000 kids by the end of the summer.
You can find more about the program and where to register here.
