Youth eat lunch free all summer at Frank Wagner Elementary

The Monroe School District has been filling the stomachs of hungry children during the summer for more than a decade, starting up again on Monday, June 27.

The free summer lunch program continues once again this year at noon to 12:45 p.m. Monday through Friday at Frank Wagner Elementary School, 115 Dickinson St. Noontime meals will be served at Frank Wagner through Sept. 2, except during the July 4 holiday. No eligibility forms or paperwork is required.

Community groups, including the Monroe Police Department, Monroe Public Library and the Monroe Boys & Girls Club, offer fun learning activities following the meal at 12:30 p.m. More organizations are always being sought to host activities. To sponsor an activity at the 2016 summer lunch program, contact Rosemary O'Neil at 360-804-2503 or oneilr@monroe.wednet.edu.

Congress created the summer lunch program in 1968 as an extension to the National School Lunch Program, to ensure children in low-income areas could continue to receive nutritious meals when they don't have access to school lunches.