Salem school district to offer free summer-lunch program

By D.A. WILKINSON

wilkinson@vindy.com

SALEM

A free Summer Food Service Program will be offered to youths at Salem High School.

The need for the program “means the district is getting poorer,” Jill Rowe, treasurer for the Salem school board, said Monday.

The district is the program sponsor, she added.

Statistics show that 48.9 percent of the district’s students are eligible, said Superintendent Tom Bratten.

The program will be offered for children between age 1 and 18 who come from homes with less than $30,000 income.

Within those age limits, Rowe said, “Everybody who wants to eat, can eat. If they can get here, they can eat.”

The food will be prepared at the high school, and the program will be open from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. from June 14 to Aug. 20.

The program has existed since 1964, Rowe said, and is funded through the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

In another move, Columbiana County Recorder Craig Brown, on behalf of the Salem Preservation Society, asked to put a plaque on the wall of the district’s Reilly Stadium to commemorate a visit from President John F. Kennedy. The board approved the request, and the society will pay for the plaque.