Charlottesville Parks and Recreation will host free dinners for children at some of the city’s public and low income housing communities for about a month this summer.

The dinners will be served on a first come, first serve basis  — and anyone can attend. 

Logo reads "Short & Important"

The meals are a part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Summer Food Service Program, a federally funded program focused on feeding children in the summertime, while the free school lunch program is not operating.  

The dinners will run from June 28-July 23. The schedule is as follows:

  • Greenstone on 5th Community Center: Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
  • Friendship Court Community Center: Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
  • South 1st Street Community Center: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
  • Westhaven Community Center: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.

The kids who attend will eat foods like yogurt and granola, to turkey sandwiches, hummus and more.

Each dinner will also include games, arts and crafts and possibly some field trips, said Karin Gainniny, meals coordinator for the parks department. 

Anyone 18 or younger is invited to join the dinners.

For more information, contact Riaan Anthony, deputy director of Parks and Recreation, at anthonyr [AT] charlottesville [DOT] gov.

While we can’t cover every story that’s important to you, we do our best to be responsive to your needs. We use tips from readers to choose which stories to cover, to incorporate information into broader reports or to help us decide how to grow Charlottesville Tomorrow. Here’s where you can tell us what you think we should be covering.

More about food insecurity


Charlottesville is losing its community gardens to redevelopment — this group wants to relocate them to city parks

Editor’s note: This story has been updated on Nov. 4 to better reflect the leadership of residents of various housing communities in making decisions regarding community gardens. Peering into an aqua plastic container that sat atop a folding table, an older woman paused to ask Richard Morris about its contents. “What kind of lettuce is this?” she asked, her hand gripping the edge of the container for stability. “Romaine,” Morris, an urban farmer, replied. “Oh!” she gasped. “I love romaine!” Morris handed her two full green heads of it, smiling behind his face mask as the woman thanked him and…

New Roots supports immigrant refugees through its community garden

Theresa Allan can’t help but overhear the conversations in the New Roots garden near Azalea Park. Oftentimes, she sees younger children tag along with their older relatives to aid in their plot of land. It’s not uncommon for younger people to not be as engaged with the garden as their elders are. Yet, Allan, who works as the farm manager, finds a way to catch the little moments of cultural education between the families in a land thousands of miles away from their homes. “I love that the garden can be a setting for that exchange of knowledge,” she said.…

More local News

image_printPrint

I'm Charlottesville Tomorrow's education and families reporter. Reach out to me by email or on Twitter. Also, subscribe to our newsletter! C’mon, it’s free.