Sack lunch program a hit with area kids Thursday, 07 August 2008 By Emily Hone BLACKFOOT — More and more children are turning up at Stalker Elementary School as they learn that free sack lunches are being given out there as well as at Jason Lee Memorial Methodist Church. Image Morning News - Emily Hone This group of children picked a shady spot under a tree at Stalker Elementary School to eat their free sack lunches on Wednesday. From left are Jose Herrera, Samuel Sotelo, Danzen Bingham, Jesse Atwell and Justin Weeks. The sack lunches will be served through Aug. 22. Volunteers Lola Brower and Pat Miller, who were handing out lunches there Wednesday, said 56 children showed up on Tuesday, and between the school and the church at 168 S. University, 210 lunches were given out that day. They hope for an increase in the number daily as the word spreads. Members of Jason Lee’s congregation began the sack lunch program last year as part of the national church’s campaign to eliminate hunger after learning the Blackfoot School District discontinues its summer free lunch program for three weeks before the start of the new school year. They formed the Hunger Task Force and solicited donations from the membership and the community to buy food, and handed out more than 700 sack lunches over a two-week period. The project was so successful, they said, they decided to expand it this year to five days a week, and added Stalker Elementary School as a second location to serve kids on the west side of Blackfoot. All the children have to do is show up at the gazebo in the school’s front yard. “We noticed a lot of the kids were walking across town last year,” said task force co-chair Shannon Jensen, “so we thought adding a location on that side of Blackfoot would make it easier for them.” They also teamed up with the Blackfoot School District, a move that gave them access to more food as well as enabling them to serve milk. Volunteers from the church take turns giving out the lunches. Miller and Brower had a “seconds” table set up, and told the children if they didn’t like something in their sacks to bring it back and put it on the table instead of throwing it away. They said that enabled those who did like that item to have a second helping, and possibly enabled those who didn’t like it to trade it for something different that had been returned. The sack lunches, free to kids under 18 and $1.50 for adults, will be given out at the two locations through Aug. 22. While the students were eating, Ashlee Howell from The Blackfoot Community Center dropped by and began handing out invitations to a free family movie that will be shown there on Friday, Aug. 8 at dark. The movie, “Nim’s Island,” will be screened in the Center’s parking lot at 157 Sexton St., and people attending should bring their own chairs, Howell said. Automation by TeachMeJoomla Last Updated ( Friday, 08 August 2008 )