Since 2015, the Vicksburg Warren School District has been offering free meals to children during the summer months through its Summer Feeding Program.

These meals, made possible through the USDA’s National School Lunch and School Breakfast Program, were provided at designated public schools in the community.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the summer meals continued, but instead of children receiving meals at these locations, meals were delivered by buses.

Now, with the return of normalcy, the Summer Feeding Program will resume at designated sites. This year, the VWSD has added a third location.

In addition to meals being offered at Dana Road Elementary School and Sherman Avenue Elementary School, the Vicksburg Warren School District’s Child Nutrition Office announced the Academy of Innovation, located at 1650 Rosa A. Temple Drive, will also be a Summer Feeding Program site.

“We are trying to get back to a central location in town. In the past, I had used one of the junior high schools or Vicksburg High School,” said VWSD Child Nutrition Director Laura Bounds.

Therefore, in trying to provide a centrally located site, Bounds said, AOI was chosen.

“AOI has several camps going on and it’s a new facility and it’s centrally located, so more of the local community members can walk in if they wanted to,” Bounds said.

Meals provided by the Summer Feeding Program are available to any child in the community who is 18 years old or younger.

“So, if you had children and their cousins came to visit for a week, those children could eat,” Bounds said.

Meals must be consumed at the school facilities.

“We are no longer doing a pickup or delivery by bus,” she said. “The children have to eat in the cafeterias at the school. They cannot take it off the grounds.”

Breakfast and lunch meals will be available Mondays through Fridays from June 6 until July 15 at all three schools.

Breakfast will be served from 8 to 9 a.m. and lunch will be served from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the cafeterias. There will be no meals served on July 4, and any changes to this plan will be posted on the district’s website at www.vwsd.org/childnutrition.