Youth can grab lunch and go

Published 8:30 am Thursday, June 4, 2020

LA GRANDE — Youths in Union and Wallowa counties again will have an opportunity to enjoy weekday lunches at no cost this summer.

The free meals will be available in several towns, including La Grande, Cove, Elgin, Wallowa, Enterprise and Joseph.

The La Grande lunches will be served at the Riveria Activity Center each weekday from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. by Community Connection of Northeast Oregon from June 8 to Aug. 21. The lunches will be free to anyone age one to 18 regardless of where they live or their family’s income level. The cost for people older than 18 is $4.

The meals will be available on a grab-and-go basis. Nobody will be allowed to eat meals inside the Riveria Activity Center, 2609 Second St., La Grande, because of state social distancing rules in place to protect people from the COVID-19 pandemic, said Jeff Hensley, assistant director of Community Connection of Northeast Oregon.

The lunches will be prepared at the Union County Senior Center by its food service staff led by Sydney Gleeson, the center’s food service nutrition department manager. This will be done to boost efficiency since meals are already being prepared there for the center’s senior meals program, which is part of Community Connection, Hensley said.

“I can’t thank Sydney and her staff enough for taking on this project,” Hensley said.

In previous years the meals were prepared at the Riveria Activity Center.

Community Connection has operated a lunch program at Riveria since 2005. Hensley, who has helped Community Connection provide this service at Riveria since that time, said the most rewarding part of being involved in the project is observing how much the youths helped by the program welcome it.

“Seeing the smiles on the faces of the children makes all of the hard work worth it,” he said.

The free lunches in Cove are available at Founders Hall on the corner of Church Street and Highway 237. Meals can be picked up from 10-11 a.m. each weekday through the end of July. The lunches are free to anyone age 18 or younger.

The Cove program, which began providing the lunches for the first time on June 1, is sponsored by the Cove Ascension Camp and Conference Center and the Episcopal Diocese of Eastern Oregon.

“We felt like we needed to do something to lift the community,” said Kim Lee, operations manager for Ascension center.

According to the center’s website, signing up for the service is required. Additional information on the program is available at coveascensionschool.com.

The free lunches in Elgin will be available starting June 8 and will be provided by the Elgin School District. Youths age 18 and younger will be able to pick up the lunches between 11 a.m. and noon each weekday at the east entrance of Stella Mayfield Elementary School. The grab-and-go lunches must be eaten outside the school building because of social distancing regulations.

Meals will be available to adults for $4, said Dianne Greif, superintendent of the Elgin School District.

The Elgin School District and Community Connection will be reimbursed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the lunches they serve.

Wallowa County

The free meals to be provided in Wallowa County will be offered by Building Healthy Families. BHF will offer grab-and-go curbside pickup at sites in Wallowa, Enterprise and Joseph Monday through Thursday from June 15 to Aug. 6.

The lunches will be free to all youths age 18 and younger from noon to 12:30 p.m. at the following sites: the east side of Enterprise City Park, the east side of Evans Park in Wallowa, and the parking lot of the Joseph United Methodist Church.

In addition to local donors, sponsors of the Wallowa County summer lunch program include the Bank of Eastern Oregon, Grace Lutheran Church, The Ford Family Foundation, Women’s Foundation of Oregon and the Lora L. & Martin N. Kelley Foundation.

For additional information on free lunches in Wallowa County, call Building Healthy Families at 541-426-9411.