Summer Lunch Bunch is now open to all
by Bethany Kemming
Staff intern
The Summer Lunch Bunch program at Peace Lutheran Church, Coon Rapids, now offers free bag lunches to all adults and children, as of June 27.
Summer Lunch Bunch Overall Program Manager Ceal Byron (left), Mary Anderson, Rev. Nancy Bence, Team Captain Diane Woken, Assistant Manager Adam Connolly and Judy Halverson serve free bagged lunches to children and adults at Peace Lutheran Church. Summer Lunch Bunch now offers free lunch to any children and adults. Around 30 volunteers are required to run the program all summer long. Photo by Bethany Kemming
Previously, the program was only allowed to offer lunch to children and their accompanying adults.
Peace Lutheran Church’s Summer Lunch Bunch is only open site of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Summer Food Service program.
It serves meals from noon to 1:30 p.m. every Monday through Thursday, but will be closed on the Fourth of July.
Adults that come without children will eat in a different room, according to Rev. Nancy Bence, Peace Lutheran Church senior pastor.
“You get nutrition, you get milk, you get healthy. It’s very family oriented,” Blaine resident Carlie Macey said.
Macey brings her five grandchildren to Summer Lunch Bunch.
Other summer food service sites are closed enrollment lunch programs for children taking part in a specific school district program, such as summer enrichment.
The whole USDA program serves between 2,600 and 2,700 meals a day in District 11, according to Anoka-Hennepin Assistant Director of Child Nutrition Esther Motyka.
Bence said Anoka-Hennepin might continue to provide meals for Summer Lunch Bunch if the state government shuts down.
If the district doesn’t provide lunches, Peace Lutheran Church will provide them, she said.
Summer Lunch Bunch is a partnership between Peace Lutheran Church, Anoka-Hennepin, the Minnesota Department of Education and the USDA.
Bence said when the program first started it was a surprise to many that a church could be an open lunch site, but now other churches are involved as well.
Anoka-Hennepin and the Department of Education provide lunches for the children, and Peace Lutheran Church provides lunches for the adults with a grant from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.
The lunches never contain any pork products. Adults are never allowed to eat any item from a children’s lunch.
Bence said the program is very serious about child protection and never allows any volunteer to be alone with a child.
Peace Lutheran Church requires all of their volunteers and workers to undergo a criminal background screening and train through its child safety policy, even if they are certified through Anoka-Hennepin.
Volunteers also have to submit a full resume of their work with children along with references from the community and re-train every three years, Bence said.
This summer is the third year of Summer Lunch Bunch. Bence said the church felt called to provide meals when the big recession hit, and then heard Anoka-Hennepin was looking for open lunch sites.
Summer Lunch Bunch is not the first connection between Peace Lutheran Church and the school district. Peace Lutheran Church already works closely with seven area elementary schools all year long to provide food to families in the area, as well as gifts around the holidays, according to Bence.
“We already had the close relationship with the elementary schools… now we’re strengthening that partnership with the school district,” Bence said.
Summer Lunch Bunch served 1,000 meals its first year and 2,000 meals last year.
“Maybe we’ll hit 5,000 this summer,” Bence told volunteers. “Does that scare you? God will provide.”
Bence said more information about Summer Lunch Bunch can be found on www.peacecoonrapids.org.
Bethany Kemming is at bethany.kemming@ecm-inc.com
