Food truck brings free breakfast and lunch to Greenfield’s Summer Eats participants

GREENFIELD — Outside the Oak Courts housing complex, a line forms in front of a food truck that extends down into the neighborhood, with adults and children on bicycles waiting to pick up their Summer Eats meals.

Summer Eats, also known as the Summer Food Service Program, is a federally funded, state-administered food security program that provides free meals to children up to age 18 in Massachusetts while school is out of session. In 2024, more than 2.8 million meals were served across more than 1,450 sites statewide through the program, according to the statewide food security nonprofit Project Bread.

Various nonprofits and municipal institutions can apply to become a Summer Eats sponsor. In Greenfield, the Greenfield School Department is that sponsor.

“We’re doing a little under 1,000 lunches a day,” said Greta Shwachman, food service director with the Greenfield School Department.

At this time, Summer Eats is still being federally reimbursed, with Shwachman adding that the state has been very supportive of the program. Statewide, Project Bread has also granted a total of $236,482 to Summer Eats sponsors this year for their program development and capacity-building, such as equipment to transport meals or increase kitchen efficiency and meal quality, as well as staffing support and items to enhance site engagement, outreach and promotion efforts​.

“We hear from families all the time who are finding ways to stretch their budgets during the summer months, who are unsure about what resources are available to them and who are just trying to put food on their tables each day,” Erin McAleer, president and CEO of Project Bread, said in a statement. “Food is not a luxury. The Summer Eats program is a vital resource that makes sure that every child can have their basic need of hunger met and can simply focus on learning, growing and enjoying summer fun.”

Shwachman and her team work year-round to provide nutrition to local children, with much of her staff working into the summer after the school year has ended. The Summer Eats program employs 20 food service workers from Greenfield’s public schools across 15 sites in the Greenfield area. Oak Courts is one of five grab-and-go sites where breakfast and lunch are distributed Monday through Friday.

Because it is a rural area, Greenfield makes use of non-congregate sites, allowing the food truck to travel through the five different locations from 10:20 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., providing a bagged meal with servings for breakfast and lunch. For dinner, the truck visits different sites throughout the week from 5 to 6 p.m.

The Athol-Royalston Regional School District sponsors the communities’ Summer Eats program, offering food at six sites, including one rural site at the Phinehas S. Newton Library in Royalston. Carolyn Brown, food service director with the Athol-Royalston Regional School District, said that while the program is slightly smaller than in previous years, roughly 400 children are served breakfast and lunch each day.

“The park and library are doing very well,” Brown said, referring to the Silver Lake Park and Athol Public Library meal sites, which serve lunch Monday through Friday from 11:50 a.m. to 12:10 p.m. Other popular spots include three Athol schools: Athol Community Elementary School, Athol-Royalston Middle School and Athol High School, which serve breakfast and lunch.

“It’s a great program,” said Dawna Turner, who works in the Food Service Department at Athol-Royalston Middle School. While it has been harder over the years to encourage workers to stay over the summer for the program, Turner believes it’s “going very well this year,” adding that the school got the word out through posted signs and flyers around town.

No registration or ID is required for Summer Eats meals. Parents or guardians, if they wish, can visit the sites to pick up meals for their children. Additionally, those receiving food do not need to be students in the school district that handles the meals.

“Our goal is to … increase food access [and] reach as many families as possible,” Shwachman said. “It’s kind of a critical time. We provide nutrition to these kids for free breakfast and lunch during the school year, so it kind of fills that gap … that they’re not getting during the summer.”

To further help, the program is providing weekend meals for the first time this summer. At the Greenfield High School grab-and-go site, open from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., weekend breakfasts and lunches are available.

“We’ve been seeing anywhere from 200 to 300 people come out for that,” Shwachman explained. “So that’s pretty exciting.”

Lori Zabko and Sue Welcome, two cafeteria workers with Greenfield’s public schools, work the food truck during the summer, handing out meals at the sites.

“We get to really see the kids that we see during the school year, so that’s nice” Zabko said. “And we get to know other ones and their parents, too.”

Zabko and Welcome have worked the food truck, which has been in commission for about three years, for the past few summers.

“[The participants] kind of know us and they know what to expect from us,” Zabko said.

“When we get here, there’s usually a line already,” Welcome said of the Oak Courts stop. “And when they see us park, they come running out.”

When picking up meals, participants in the program can fill out raffle tickets to win gift cards from local businesses, like the Garden Cinemas or Ice Cream Alley.

“We try to give something that folks can do in the summer that benefits the whole family and supports the local economy,” Shwachman said.

In addition to working with local businesses, the program has coordinated with area institutions. On Tuesday nights, the food truck stops at the Greenfield Public Library, where a free movie night is offered in the Community Meeting Room.

“It’s for every child,” Shwachman said of the program. “It’s meant to help parents with rising grocery costs and save time, save money around the house. We really want to encourage as many families in the community as possible to give it a try.”

For more information about Greenfield’s Summer Eats program, visit gpsk12.org/departments/food-services-dept/greenfield-summer-eats. To view more sites that are participating in the program in Massachusetts, visit projectbread.org/summer-eats-program.