Altoona Area School District students Charlotte Hale, second grade, and Sophia Hale, seventh grade, have lunch with their grandmother, Mabel Hale of Altoona, on Friday as part of the summer food service program at the Altoona Area Junior High School. Mirror photo by Matt Churella

The Altoona Area School District is seeing a nearly 40% increase in the number of students who have participated in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s summer food service program so far this year.

Federal funding for the program is dependent on student participation, but the program always costs the district money to operate its open sites, said Paula Foreman, the district’s community relations director.

According to Sandy Becker, an accountant for the district’s cafeteria office, the amount of money it costs the district to run the program varies every year because of fluctuating food and labor costs.

The district has participated in the program, providing daily free lunches to children under 18, for more than two decades, Foreman said. Adults can purchase meals for $4.75 this year until the program ends July 26.

The district offers the program from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. every weekday at three sites: the Juniata and Pleasant Valley elementary schools and the Altoona Area Junior High School.

At one point, the district had five or six total open sites, Foreman said, noting the district consolidated the number of locations to save costs. She said they chose to keep the three areas that could serve the most people.

“At one point, we had Penn Lincoln and the Junior High. It was funny because you would have kids go up there and eat, and then they’d run down here and eat,” she said.

A report of sales shows the district served 6,217 lunches last month, nearly double the amount served in June 2023, when 3,194 lunches were served.

Although the district is seeing “a good increase,” Becker said, the numbers aren’t as drastic as they appear. She said the district only served lunches for 15 days in June 2023 compared to serving lunch for 20 days last month.

As of Thursday, the district served 1,602 lunches in July so far. Although the program will continue through July 26, an average of the numbers so far show an increase compared to last year’s numbers.

The average number of lunches received across all three schools as of Thursday was 229. Last year’s average for the entire month was 182, according to the report, which shows the district has seen an overall increase of 37%.

“I think this year, the uncertainty of the economy is a factor that improved our numbers,” Becker said. “Parents are saying, ‘Get in there and get your lunch.'”

On Friday, children were served cheesy breadsticks with sauce, a caesar salad and a choice of fruit and milk.

Charlotte Hale, 7, said the salad was her favorite part of the meal. Hale ate her lunch Friday in the junior high school next to her grandmother, city resident Mabel Hale, and across from her older sister, Sophia, who will enter seventh grade next month.

“We try to do stuff together, and they like to come here,” Mabel said. “It’s just time for the family.”

She said they don’t go to the school for food regularly, but when they do, she purchases a turkey hoagie to eat with her granddaughters.

As part of the increase in lunches served, many adults are choosing to pay for a lunch to eat with their children, Becker said.

“It’s not a big increase, but it has definitely increased,” she said of the number of adults who attend, adding the junior high school averages between 12 to 15 adults per day. “That’s a pretty good number.”

Foreman said children don’t need to be district residents in order to participate in the program. Sometimes kids are just out playing and wander into the school as a group for free food, she said.

That was the case Friday for AASD sophomores Brooke Emig and Haley Lehman and her sixth-grade sister, Madison Lehman. All three enjoy walking throughout Prospect Park and the surrounding areas, Emig said on Friday.

“We’ve been here almost every day,” Emig said, adding her favorite lunch option is General Tso’s chicken with steamed rice.

“I think we only missed like one or two days,” Haley added, noting this year was the group’s first in visiting the school over the summer for free meals. The Lehmans both said pizza is their favorite meal choice.

City resident Vanessa McClellan said her grandson, Parker Young, 8, usually goes to the school for the free lunch with his cousin and his older brother. But his cousin was out of the area and his brother was sleeping, so they decided to have lunch together.

Young said he liked the cheesy breadsticks. But pizza is his favorite food, he said.

City resident Angel Shultz and her children — daughter, Andrea, a junior student; daughter, Cali, a sophomore; and son, Jacob, a freshman — have been coming to the school for the program for several years. They try to attend daily if they don’t have any scheduling conflicts, Shultz said.

“It helps save me from buying food at the grocery store for lunch,” she said, adding some of her children attend summer school programs, so having lunch at the school district is convenient.

The meals follow the Department of Agriculture’s school lunch guidelines to ensure they contain protein, fruit, vegetables, bread and milk. The menu features kids’ favorites: cheeseburgers, hot dogs, pizza, chicken nuggets, corn dogs, French fries and more.

A full menu is available on the district’s website.