ST. LANDRY PARISH, La. ( KLFY ) — The St. Landry Parish summer feeding program is officially underway, trying to ensure no child goes hungry while school is out.

Lucretia Hertzock, Child Nutrition Supervisor for the St. Landry Parish school board says child hunger has been an ongoing issue for years, especially in the months children spend outside of school, creating a need for additional effort to provide assistance.

“What we’re doing is offering any child 18 and under a seven-day meal box,” Hertzock said. “We have seven days of shelf-stable and frozen meals.”

With a full staff manning the kitchen and an assembly line setup, Hertzock said they’re ensuring kids meet all of their nutritional needs, from grains, to proteins, and their fruits and veggies.

“This is the first year that we’re actually doing our tray line,” she said. “So, where we’re actually making our own boxes.”

School officials even put me to work by helping fill up some of the boxes with various cereals and breakfast bars.

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With plenty of food packed in to each box, Hertzock says the program is taking place at the perfect time as inflation and rising costs for even the smallest of grocery items continue to rise, putting a strain on many families in the parish.

“It actually helps reduce their food costs during the summer,” Hertzock said. “We do anything that we can to actually support our community as a school system. So we just hope that our children come out and enjoy the meals that we’ve lovingly prepared for them.”

Hertzock does want to remind parents that this program is for any child 18 and under that lives in St. Landry Parish, even if they don’t attend school inside the parish.

Parents can register their children on the St. Landry Parish School Board website .

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