Rock Island, Illinois-- The Rock Island-Milan School District is adding six new locations to its summer meal program.
The program started out at the high school but after the Quad Cities Area Children's food program shut down, they decided to pick up the slack.
"I think with school being out for the summer there’s a gap in the ability to help our families feed kids in the community. So we want to help do what we can to provide meals for those parents and families so that we don’t have issues with hunger over the summer months," said Jennifer McVay. McVay is the assistant director for nutrition services throughout the school district.
The new summer meal program locations in Rock Island are spread out within the district at elementary schools including Earl Hanson Elementary, Frances Willard Elementary, Longfellow Liberal Arts, and Rock Island Center for Math and Science.
"We are expecting at the elementary level and our high school program roughly four hundred and eighty meals," said McVay. This is during both breakfast and lunch times between the seven locations.
Breakfast will be available from 9 a.m to 9:30 a.m and lunch will be served from 12 p.m to 12:30 p.m.
The program is completely free for children under the age of eighteen.