The Atlanta Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) is teaming up with another Georgia government program to provide free meals to children in the city’s parks through the end of July.
“The City of Atlanta Department of Parks and Recreation is pleased to partner with the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning’s Bright from the Start program to feed thousands of youth this summer,” DPR said.
Bright from the Start “is responsible for meeting the child care and early education needs of Georgia’s children and their families,” according to its website.
“It administers the nationally recognized Georgia’s Pre-K Program, licenses child care centers and home-based child care, administers Georgia’s Childcare and Parent Services (CAPS) program, federal nutrition programs, and manages Quality Rated, Georgia’s community powered child care rating system,” the site says.
The program began in June and runs through the end of July, bridging the gap between school years. It serves breakfast and lunch to children up to age 18. Many children in Atlanta rely on schools for breakfast and lunch, which are not available during the summer months.
Tuesday, DPR said some of the locations and times for serving the meals had changed.
The walk-up locations include Ariel Brown Memorial United Methodist Church, Operation Peace, and the West End Performing Arts center.
The program, which requires enrollment, has mobile sites too. They include Hopeville Public Library, Northwest Branch Library at Scotts Crossing, Southeast Branch Library, Washington Park Branch Library, and the Amani Place Apartments.
Youth enrolled in Camp Best Friends, a city summer camp, are also automatically included in the meal program.
The program is one of many special summer programs administered by the city of Atlanta.
Others center around recreation and crime prevention.
One of those programs is the Summer Safety Plan, meant to reduce crime during the summer months, when it typically soars.
Under that plan, police officers are deployed to parks and given other special details to prevent crime.
“You will certainly see the men and women that are here today on horses, on motorcycles, on bikes present not only today in this park, but at our parks throughout the summer,” Atlanta’s Interim Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said when the program was announced. “As individuals come to our parks – we know that that’s where we celebrate our birthdays or our anniversaries – all those events that are key to us as city residents. So these officers here will be out. We’ve changed their hours. We’ve changed their deployment. And they will be ensuring that those great events and festivities that we celebrate in our parks will continue in a safe manner.”
Part of that program is the Police Athletic League (PALs), wherein members of the Atlanta Police Department (APD) play organized sports with local youth.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Georgia Star News and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Child Eating” by Harsha K R. CC BY-SA 2.0.
