Summer Lunch With a Heaping Side of Fun

Parents: Imagine a place you can drop off the kids this summer for a few hours of free, supervised activity where they can play with friends they already know — lunch and snacks included.

No weeklong, expensive, day-long camp, no long-term commitment, just a drop-in kind of arrangement.

Sounds too good to be true. It’s not.

All summer long, the Community Renewal Team has set up two locations in Middletown for kids ages 5-18 to hang out with friends, play games, shoot some hoops, read books — and get a nutritious snack and lunch to boot.

The Summer Food Service Program is funded by the state Department of Education, with locations throughout Connecticut.

The first day proved quite popular, says Marilyn Dunkley site supervisor for the third year at the Salvation Army, 515 Main St. “Yesterday we had 50 kids. It was kind of really crazy. I didn’t expect that many,” she says good-naturedly.

Dunkley, who has seven children, including a new baby, says the summer lunch program is “organized chaos, I like to say. It’s kind of like my house except a couple more kids.”

Parents can drop off their children — or stick around to watch, relax or help — from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Snack is served at 10 a.m. and lunch at noon. And it’s good stuff, just like school lunches; Southwest chicken wraps, Breaded chicken filet and buffalo chicken breast sandwiches with fresh fruit and juice and milk are just some of the day’s offerings.

There is a play area for the younger crowd, indoor and outdoor basketball hoops, books and a craft room.

“Next week we’ll have structured days with different projects like paper mache, homemade Playdoh and butterflies,” Dunkley says.

Each day has a featured activity. Monday is hip-hop lessons and nutrition. Tuesday is gardening, Wednesday is a movie day and the book mobile visits, Thursday is nutrition and Friday is the big event — the North End Farmers Market.

“The Community Health Center and North End Action Team give the kids $5 to $7 every week and the kids get fresh fruit and we tie it in with a recipe like blueberry ice pops, zucchini muffins,” Dunkley says. So the children shop for ingredients, return to the center and cook the recipe.

Last year for the zucchini muffins, Dunkley says, “I didn’t think they would eat them, but they were delicious. They had plump, golden raisins in them. They were so good!”

Even hosting such a wide range of kids — kindergarteners through 12th-graders in the same space — works because the dynamic becomes like a big family. Parents of the younger children tend to stay and offer some much-needed help.

And the older kids? Dunkley recalls when a number showed up Monday.

“’Oh no,’ she said to herself in alarm. ‘There’s nothing cool for them to do. Then I remembered … basketball!’”

A big picture of cool water and some plastic cups fueled the hoop players for the entire day.

“We had little kids playing Twister,” Dunkley says, “asking us, ‘which one’s my left?’”

Wesleyan students who garden at “Long Lane came last year to cook with the kids,” Dunkley says. “This year, they’re going to sculpt gardens in big tires. They’ll fill them up and grow them in the back.”

“When the Kiwanis have their lunch here, we shift to the chapel next door for movie day on a big screen,” Dunkley says. “Two times a week, a nutritionist comes to teach the kids to cook a little bit and make a snack.”

Sounds like a great summer.

Volunteers are always needed to help set up, supervise children and help with meals. For information, call (860) 347-7493 or just stop by.

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