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The little boy ate every crumb of his free lunch and walked back to the van. "Can I have seconds?" he asked the lunch ladies. He was told rules prohibited it and he walked away, head down. But he stopped, turned back and asked, "Well, can I at least have a bun, then?"
The boy's tenacity in staving off hunger is a tenacity shared by North Bend School District's food services director, Rhonda Hoffine, who has expanded her district's free-summer-lunch program from a three-food-site operation in 1993 to one that now serves about 850 meals a day from 28 locations in two counties and six fancifully painted trucks, complete with heating and chilling equipment, that blare out jingles calling kids to their free lunches.
Hoffine knows that, although set-backs in math and reading skills are a summer worry, for many kids, the more immediate concern is getting enough food to live. From the start, Hoffine has kept her staff lean, because every dollar means more nutrition-packed pizza, hog dogs, watermelon, ice cream, cookies and milk for kids. She applies for grants to get every dollar she can for the program. In 2006, she got a $200,000 three-year USDA grant to help her food vans get to kids in rural reaches of the county.
Since June 16 this year, Hoffine's summer-lunch army has set out nearly every day for apartments, skate parks, libraries, county parks, baseball fields - anywhere kids may congregate. Through Aug. 22, they'll dish out lunch and, at three sites, breakfast. Forty-nine days of nutritious meals that may be all some children will get.
Although Coos and Douglas counties have high numbers of under- or unemployed families and single-parent households, it doesn't matter if the children come from middle-income homes or live in cars. It doesn't matter if they are too young to walk or old enough to be employed. Everyone who wants lunch, and who is 18 or younger, gets lunch.
"The hardest thing," Hoffine said, "Is to convince people that it's really free and that we want them to eat it. Parents sometimes apologize when they bring their kids to free lunch, but there's no need. It's good for our school district - it's good for everybody. Kids can interact with other kids, school staff, and whatever adults are there."
Hoffine finds communities very willing to pitch in, helping by offering lunch sites, garbage service, picnic tables, and word-of-mouth "advertising." The summer lunch program, for its part, provides outreach throughout the two counties for schools and Head Start programs, lessening potential students' concerns about school.
Hoffine, the cooks and delivery staff know that - but for the food they provide over the summer - accompanied by a big helping of caring, some kids would not be in class, come September.
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