As summer winds down – school starts on the South Coast next week – the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County wraps up its "Picnic in the Park" program, which has served more than 1,400 summertime lunches to kids, teens, and some adults.
A stop on Friday afternoon at the Central Library's Faulkner Gallery found ham, cheese, and veggie sandwiches, chips, apples, and milk being served to a variety of eaters and players. Parents fed children, children played games, a few older siblings were there with their kid brother or sister, all having a free lunch together.
Volunteers Iris Chen, a third-year student at UCSB, and Paige Kieding, a junior high schooler, were there to give away the lunches to anyone 18 years old or younger in the weekday program. "We've given out as many as 65 lunches a day at some places," Chen said, who also described how teens looking after their little brothers and sisters liked coming in for lunch once they found the program.