DOWAGIAC — Thanks to some expanded delivery routes, Dowagiac Union Schools were able to get more sacks of sandwiches, fresh fruits and veggies, and other nutritious food into the hands of local children during lunchtime this summer.

The head of the district’s food services program, Deb Cahill, reported that the school’s free summer lunch program was larger and more successful than ever this season during her presentation to the DUS Board of Education Monday evening at Dowagiac City Hall. Employees with Sodexo, the district’s food service provider, handed out an average of 187 free sack lunches to local children throughout the summer — on some days, they were handing out 230 bags or more, Cahill said.

This summer was the largest yet for the district’s summer lunch program, funded through the state’s Meet Up and Eat Up initiative. Sodexo has organized the program locally for Dowagiac Union Schools since 2014.

Running through summer vacation, Sodexo employees stopped at different locations throughout Dowagiac to hand out lunches to children.

“We gave out everything from meat and cheese sandwiches to peanut butter and jellies,” Cahill said. “We also started doing salads this year, and they were a big hit, as well as yogurts. Besides that, they got a fresh fruit, a vegetable and a milk. They were fed well.”

Cahill said the larger numbers were due in part to some changes to the locations where drivers stopped. They added a stop at the Dowagiac District Library, to feed the children who stopped there during the day for summer activities. They also split one of their old stops at Rotary Park into two stops at the nearby Riverside and Vineyard Place apartment complexes, which allowed children to come out and grab lunch without having to walk across the street to the park.

Combined with the around 3,600 free lunches and breakfasts Sodexo served to students attending the Patrick Hamilton Elementary summer school program, the company handed out around 19,950 free meals in total this summer, Cahill said.

“Hopefully next year, we will grow it and keep going further than that,” she said.

Cahill thanked the district for sponsoring the program and allowing Sodexo to make the days of local children a little brighter during their summer vacations.

“It’s so much fun,” she said. “I know the people who work for us enjoy it too. They like to see that the kids are being fed. Most of them are [kids] who otherwise wouldn’t get a three-course meal every day.”