Oxford School District is once again doing its part in the battle against child hunger.  

On Monday, the district’s summer meal program kicks off, providing breakfast and lunch at no charge for children ages 1 through 18. 

The program is coming off a successful 2018 campaign, where they provided 5,000 more meals than in 2017. This year the program expects to feed over 20,000 kids. In 2017, 12,016 meals were served, and that number jumped to 17,345 meals in 2018. 

“It is particularly hard to see the overall positive of the program as anything other than getting food to hungry kids,” OSD child nutrition director Dan Westmoreland said. “The summer meal program has one goal and that is to feed kids.” 

The program also allows OSD employees the opportunity to continue working once the school year is over, instead of not working for two months. 

There will again be two locations serving meals this summer, at Oxford Intermediate School and Oxford Middle School. The breakfast period will be from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. and lunch will be served from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The meals are free for all children, not just students of Oxford School District. Adults will be able to purchase meals for $1.75 for breakfast and $3.75 for lunch.

The program is made possible through the U.S. Department of Agriculture and provides a nutritionally balanced meal that is USDA approved and serves all five food groups: grain, meat, vegetable, fruit and dairy. 

Due to construction of the new Central Elementary, the back entrance to OIS will be closed. Summer School and any other activities that take place at OIS will be held at OMS. The meal program will run through July 19 and there will not be meals served on July 4 and 5 due to the holiday. It will be ending one week earlier than usual to allow for construction projects to be completed at both schools before the new school year begins in August.