The summer food program, which is sponsored by the Liberty County Board of Commissioners, is giving away free lunches to kids 18 and under. When asked why the summer food program exists, David Floyd, the program director, said, “My position for the rest of the year is a family connection coordinator. One of the things that we do is look at statistics in the county. One of the things about Liberty County is that we do not have a super high unemployment rate, but what we do have is a high food insecurity rate. We have a lot of families that work low wage jobs. Once we discovered that we decided to partner with the county to plan for a summer food program.  The program feeds kids that normally receive free lunch in school.”

Family Connection feeds children throughout the year and supports other food programs also.  “The United Way has several food programs that we support. We are big supporters of the WIC program, we actually just wrote a grant trying to promote WIC among new young mothers. We do basic food giveaways and try to encourage other nonprofits and service organizations that may have groups that are experienced in food insecurity. We come up with many different ways to do food pantries like Ziploc complete meals so you’re not giving somebody random cans of beans that may not make a meal.  That’s what we’re doing right now to address food insecurity,” Floyd said.

The food provider for the program is Coastal Georgia Area. The food is cooked in the former Jordye Bacon Elementary school kitchen.  The program is hosted in several locations, like local public libraries or the Riceboro Youth Center. Lunch is served from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Monday through Friday until July 26. For more information call the program director at (912) 977-7819.