Program offers free, healthy meals for kids - Atlanta News, Weather, Traffic, and Sports | FOX 5

If you're having trouble deciding what to feed your children now that school is out for the summer, a federal program may offer the answer you're looking for.  The No Kid Hungry Program offers free, healthy meals at sites around the city. 

The program is offered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  Atlanta's Center of Hope in Thomasville is one location that offers the program. Before lunchtime, the education lab was filled with children. It was reading and storytelling time for them.

"It's a place they love to come. They can play bumper pool or air hockey. We have a lot of board games," said Nikki McClain-Williams of the Girls and Boys Club.

Darrius Raglin, 11, attends the center. He says they have healthy meals, exercise, run around and stay active for about four hours a day. But Raglin's favorite part of the day is lunch. He says his favorite foods at the center are apples and oranges, not pizza.

Everyday the center serves a hot lunch to more than 100 kids. It's a partnership with the Atlanta Community Food Bank and a federal summer lunch program that offers free or reduced nutritious meals to students daily. In the state of Georgia, more than 3 million meals were served last summer.  

"Important thing also is we like to ask them questions about the food while they're eating it. Like what type of vitamins are in an apple and what are apples good for? So we give them a little food trivia every now and then. To not just give them food, but to educate them about food," said McClain-Williams.
 
Raglin says he appreciates the lesson.

"I like that they don't eat much junk food. They give us, like, nutrition. It helps our calcium and our bones and everything," said Raglin.

At many of the sites, your child simply needs to show up at lunchtime. However, some of the sites require registration. For more information on where the meals are being offered, you can visit the following sites: http://decal.ga.gov/Nutrition/Search.aspx?source=green and http://ga.nokidhungry.org/free-summer-meals