The Summer Lunch & Fun! program has been successfully providing Port Clinton area school-aged children with summertime craft programs and games in a safe, secure and supervised environment. Most importantly, the program provides lunches on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday through Aug. 23, just before school begins.

The lunch starts at 11:30 a.m. and the program ends at 1 p.m. The Summer Lunch & Fun sites are the Lakeview Estates Community Room, 205 Buckeye Blvd., Port Clinton and the Ottawa County Family Advocacy Center, 570 McKinley Dr., Port Clinton. For information, call coordinator April Schalk at 419-301-0225.

One feature of the much-needed program has been the weekend meal bags now being provided to the kids every Friday to help feed them and their families over the weekend. To make that program a success, United Way and the Ottawa County Family Advocacy Center still needs a lot of canned goods containing soup, pasta, fruits or veggies.

“The bags the kids take home contain such kid-friendly foods as cereal, canned pasta, canned vegetables, fruit cup, mac and cheese, a couple of snack items and peanut butter and jelly,” said Schalk. “The can drive will last until that need is filled, or July 1,” she said.

Canned goods can be dropped off Monday through Friday from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. at United Way or Bistro 163, both in the Sutton Center on Buckeye Boulevard. For information, call 419-734-6645.

“This is our seventh year of Lunch & Fun,” said Schalk. “Last summer we had more than 100 community volunteers make the program a rousing success. Groups of volunteers from clubs and workplaces meet at Firelands Presbyterian Church in Port Clinton at 9 a.m. to put together the healthy lunches, with community organizations and area restaurants donating food and supplies.”

To make sure the kids have fun, as well as a meal, there are projects, programs and games for all ages and interests.

This is the fifth year for the weekend food program, said Schalk. Families have been grateful to receive the bags of food, which include breakfast, lunch and dinner items for Saturday and Sunday. The kids bring the bags back on Tuesday to be repacked for the next weekend.