USDA Helps You Locate Free Summer Meals For Kids

Sadly, a lot of kids in Maine have to take advantage of free or reduced lunches during the school year. But come summertime, that resource dries up, leaving some families in a bit of a bind. Whether family members are out of work, or too ill to work, or whatever the reason, summer presents meal stability issues for some households.

But if you visit the USDA's website, you can scope out a link that will allow to input your zipcode/address, and it will tell you all the spots where kids can get a free lunch. For instance, I plugged in the address here at the station, and it came up with ten different locations within about a ten mile radius.

This could be a pretty useful resource for some families who really need that leg up on keeping their young ones fed. In my search, there were four right around Bangor, and another six in the Old Town/Orono area. This is pretty awesome, because there seems to be at least one near most folks in this area.

Of course it would be best if kids didn't need such programs, but how awesome is it that technology can help people find these spots so quickly and easily. Because the most important thing of all, is keeping food in the bellies of our little ones. A bunch of them can't even use the stove yet, so this will be just the ticket!