Now that school is out, there are many kids in the community that go without a midday meal. So the Salvation Army and Youth for Christ teamed up to provide community kids with a free lunch.

“We wanted to make sure no kid in the community didn’t have a lunch now that school’s out,” said Salvation Army Director of Youth Ministry Lori Miles.

Through the Minnesota Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Summer Food Service Program allows the Salvation Army to serve breakfast and lunch to kids enrolled in their day camp program free of charge.

The Salvation Army, 302 Court St. in Albert Lea, serves breakfast from 7:30 to 9 a.m. and lunch from 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. until Aug. 20. This is the first year the meals have been part of the day camp.

In conjunction, Youth for Christ-The Rock offers free lunches to any kid in the community under the age of 18. The program can be completely anonymous.

Meals are served at Youth for Christ’s The Rock, 116 W. Clark St. in Albert Lea, 12:30 to 1:15 p.m. Monday through Friday until Aug. 20 — except July 3 and 4.

Because the Salvation Army is a closed site for free meals — kids have to be registered — Miles said she wanted an open site for the community.

“If a kid does smell the food or they see we have food we can say they can go to The Rock,” she said.

The Salvation Army orders, buys, cooks and prepares all the meals for both sites because The Rock doesn’t have a kitchen. The meals are brought to The Rock for kids who wander in, and The Rock keeps track of how many are served.

Serving started Monday and the Salvation Army already has 50 kids show up (60 are registered).

At The Rock, 34 kids were served one day this week, and drop-in center Director Rick Miller said he anticipates the numbers to increase as the word gets out. Most kids who come for lunch are in elementary or middle school, with a few high schoolers.

“We realized that a lot of kids in the summertime don’t get a lunch at home,” he said, adding in the past he has made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for hungry kids.

The drop-in center opens for kids in the community at 12:30 p.m. and lunch is served right away. The Rock is a place in the community for kids to go and hang out. Youth for Christ runs it. So far this summer, Miller said he has seen 60 to 70 kids come and go each day.

The Rock is starting to see a few new kids, Miller said, so he’s thinking they are coming for the meal and staying to hang out.

The meals have to be well-balanced, Miller said, and each kid has to take every part of the meal whether they want it or not. The state won’t reimburse for a meal that isn’t complete. The food that is not eaten or wanted is put on a sharing table so it doesn’t go to waste.

“They want to make sure kids are getting all the nutrition they’re supposed to get,” he said.

The meal program will eventually tie in to the new City Life program, according to Miller, as Youth for Christ’s The Rock takes a holistic view of a child’s development — educationally, spiritually and physically.

Through the City Life program kids will be put into small groups and paired with a mentor for an hour to discuss feelings or anything the kids want to talk about. Miller said the idea is that kids learn at a young age how to express their feelings.

As kids share with mentors what’s going on in their lives, hopefully Youth for Christ will learn of any needs of the family and make connections between the family and a community organization, Miller said.

“We’re trying to see what we can do for the entire family through the kid,” he said. “When it gets established it really can make a difference for the lower income families.”

The Rock also runs the Campus Life program for high school kids and a middle program.