By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News
One of the most important summer programs returns to Carbon County on June 2, when the 2025 free summer lunch program launches. Tonya Jones, the Carbon School District’s child nutrition program director, sat down with Castle Country Radio to discuss the program’s ins and outs.
“The program is for us to provide lunch and breakfast for the students. So we’re going to be able to do breakfast that they will be able to take home when they come on Thursday or on any day. Thursday, they’ll take weekend meals home,” explained Jones. “But the best thing is that those kids who may not get access to meals can come and actually get breakfast and lunch. So that will help at least with two meals a day for the kids.”
These lunches will have pickup locations across the county. “We are doing them at our elementary schools. For anybody out in East Carbon and Sunnyside, you can go to Bruin Point Elementary. We’ve got Creekview and Castle Heights in Price. In Wellington, go to Wellington Elementary. Then, in Helper, visit Sally Mauro. So if you swing by those places at 11, it’ll be 11 to 12, we’ll be glad to serve you.”
The meals are free for children 18 and under. However, adult meals can be purchased for $5, and baby food is available on request.
“Parents can come pick up the meals. We are able to grab and go. So there won’t be any sitting down to eat,” stated Jones. “You can just come in, grab your meals, and head out to your next activity. If you’ve got kids at activities, pick the meals up and let them eat when they get home.”
Jones then broke the program down from her perspective as Child Nutrition Program Director, looking at its benefits to county children. “The biggest benefit is to have the ability for those kids to actually have meals to help them through, because it’s so hard if they don’t have the nutrients they need. So we would love to be able to feed them and help them in any way to help them learn and grow how they need to. This is such an important program.”
In closing, Jones stated,” Just come on out and enjoy it. We’ve got lots of food, and it’ll be fun for the kids. So we’ll hope to see you.”
The Carbon School District Free Summer Lunch program kicks off on June 2 and runs through July 24. Grab-and-go locations are available Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to noon at Creekview Elementary, Castle Heights Elementary, Sally Mauro Elementary, Wellington Elementary, and Bruin Point Elementary.