A coordinator for the Summer Picnic Parties, Marty Rombold, is calling the effort to feed hungry children in Junction City this summer “incredibly successful.”

Rombold noted 3,200 meals across five locations in the city were served to children during the noon hour five day a week. She added that more than 1,000 of those meals were served at the Fifth Street Playground Park. “And then next was the Library with all their reading programs. Regency Trailer Park had an amazing number of kids, thanks to Charles Martinez who was really active in getting the kids out there.”

The effort for a second consecutive year was funded through a grant from USDA and the Wichita Food Bank.

Five lucky children were the winners of bicycles donated by the local Walmart. Rombold said every day the children arrived for a meal they were allowed to put their name in for a drawing. “So the more often they came, the more opportunities they had to win. So on the last day it was just drawing a name out of the hat.” The recipients of the bicycles included Olivia Engledow, Leslie Thomas, Jayna Winans, Vanessa Nixon and Deidra Bell.

Numerous volunteers assisted with this program during the summer.