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A school district in Ohio is now offering hungry students free dinner

Posted at 8:16 AM, Oct 04, 2019
and last updated 2019-10-04 11:16:20-04

ELYRIA, Ohio — In addition to breakfast and lunch, the Elyria City School District in Ohio is now offering its students dinner.

It's a brand new program for all kids in the district.

Students 18 and under can grab a hot meal at Elyria High School 4-5:30 p.m., Monday-Friday. And folks are already taking advantage of the program.

"We go home, we start homework, then we get halfway done with homework, then we come down here, we leave here and go start homework again," Tunisha Winborn said.

Winborn has been bringing all of her grandchildren to the dinner program since it started a few weeks back.

"It makes it easier, that way they all get something to eat," she said.

Kyle Suerth, a food service director for Aramark, is the mastermind behind this program. He says he got the idea from an athletic trainer.

"She said she was bringing stuff from home just to make sandwiches for the kids every single day because they were so hungry," Suerth said.

In addition to the athletes who need to eat before games and practices, Suerth says some of the students in the district wouldn't get to eat dinner otherwise.

"If they don't have anything to go home and grab, or if there's no food here all day and there may not be food at home, that's something that we really need to pay attention to," he said.

Although parents can't eat dinner with their kids at the school, the district recently opened a food pantry for everyone.

This story was originally published by Amanda VanAllen on WEWS.