Tigard-Tualatin schools expand summer food service program

By Christina Cooke

The Times, Aug 13, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Christina Cooke / The Times

BREAKFAST BUDDIES — Sisters Trisha and Aubrey Picknell (from left) eat breakfast at Metzger Elementary on Thursday morning, with roses from their grandmother’s garden in makeshift vases between them. The Tigard-Tualatin School District supplies the meals as part of its federally-funded summer feeding program, newly expanded this year.

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TIGARD – Sisters Aubrey and Trisha Picknell sat across from each other at a table in the Metzger Elementary cafeteria Thursday morning, eating hash browns and peach cups and drinking chocolate milk.

“It is sooo good,” Aubrey said. “I love hash browns!”

The Tigard-Tualatin School District expanded its free summer food service program this year to serve almost five times the number of meals it served last year. The program served 5,501 lunches this June and July, compared to 1,147 last year.

“The point of the summer feeding program is to extend the national school lunch program into the summer,” said Diane Wylie, director of food services for the school district. “We know there are kids out there that are hungry and need to eat.”

The federally-funded program, which runs in Tigard and Tualatin from mid-June to mid-August, is open to any person aged 1 to 18 regardless of their economic situation, no application or registration required.

Breakfast menus include items such as french toast, omelettes, hash browns, egg and cheese breakfast wraps, fruit, milk and juice. Lunches include cheeseburgers, bean burritos, tuna sandwiches, chicken egg rolls, fruits and vegetables.

When it started in 2008, the Tigard-Tualatin program offered free lunches at two sites, Metzger Elementary and Bridgeport Elementary. This year, it opened breakfasts to the community at the two school sites and expanded to serve lunches at three apartment complexes as well – Bonita Villa, The Colonies and Olsen Woods.

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