The Bozeman Public Library is just one of the many locations for HRDC's Kids Summer Lunch Program that are helping to serve free meals to the kids in our community.
Bozeman resident Joy Davis says she loves to bring her kids to the library and enjoy this free lunch program provided by HRDC.
"We love it," Davis said. "It's just kind of a nice thing to do. In the summer we come to the library and we get books and we play with the animals that are here, and we eat lunch on the lawn."
HRDC's Olivia Smart says the program distributes lunches to seven sites in Bozeman including Storymill Park and Hyalite Elementary. They serve around 600 meals a day.
"It is a super rewarding program," Smart said. "I helped out with the summer lunch program during my undergrad at MSU as well, and so I'm familiar with the program, but this is my first-year sort of being in charge of it."
Smart says the numbers are continuing to grow as the need for food increases.
"During the month of June, we serve upwards of 11,000 meals, which is a huge increase from last year. Last year, we did not top 10,000 meals or so," Smart said.
The program tries to keep the menu different from ordinary school lunches by serving, "something like peanut noodles with tofu and edamame is on our menu. Tomorrow, we will be serving pesto pasta," Smart said.
For Davis, she believes the lunch program is a great helping hand for the community.
"It's so nice to know that, like, there's a place to come and all kids can eat, and they do a really good job putting together lunch that, has a little bit, you know, you never know what kids are going to eat," Davis said.
