The Free Summer Lunch for Kids and Teens will be available again this summer. Five churches – Christ United Methodist Church, St. Stephens UCC, Our Saviour’s Lutheran, Trinity Lutheran, and St. John Lutheran – work together with the Merrill Community Food Pantry to provide a lunch for kids in the community who do not have access to lunch when school is on summer break.
This year’s program will run substantially the same as it has for the last several years.
The program will run from June 3, 2024 until Aug. 30, 2024.
All meals will be available for pick-up from Christ United Methodist Church (UMC), 300 N. Mill St. in Merrill, in the parking lot area and may be picked up by either the child or a parent between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., Monday through Friday.
No meals will be eaten on site, and children are expected to eat at home. All of the meals will be ready to eat.
As in the past, each of the five churches will provide meals on their assigned day of the week; however, they will operate from Christ UMC.
The Community Food Pantry of Merrill is partnering with the program again this year and will provide certain items for the meals each day, such as a snack, the juice drink or other beverage, and fruit cups. This provides a great savings for the churches and is a wonderful partnership for the community.
In addition, this year volunteers from Associated Bank will help pack the bags throughout the summer, providing a huge time saver for the church volunteers; this is a great way to increase community participation.
No sign-up is necessary to participate in this program. The child or parent just needs to come to the Christ UMC parking lot on Third St. near the intersection of Mill St. between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Monday through Friday to pick up their bag lunch.
Please note: A meal will NOT be available on July 4, 2024.
