DOWAGIAC — School may be out for the summer, but Dowagiac Union Schools is still hard at work making sure students have access to healthy food.

For the sixth year in a row, Dowagiac Union Schools has decided to sponsor its Meet Up and Eat Up summer food service program, which is federally funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Free meals are made available to children 18 years of age and under or persons up to age 26 who are enrolled in an education program for the mentally or physically disabled that is recognized by a state or local public education agency.

“We are getting a ton of positive feedback,” said Debra Cahill, the general manager and regional executive chef at Dowagiac Union Schools. “The summer is a really difficult time for some people. They’re used to just feeding their children supper and their kids always got breakfast and lunch at school. It’s nice we can help them out with at least one meal during the summer.”

The first year of the program, Dowagiac Union Schools only had one truck doing five stops. This year, Dowagiac has two trucks, each traveling to six stops, for a total of 12 different sites for children to eat a healthy meal throughout the summer. Dowagiac Middle School, 57072 Riverside Dr., Dowagiac, will also be a destination serving breakfast from 7:10 to 9:30. a.m. and lunch at 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. until Aug. 8.

“The lunch is a meat and cheese sandwich or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich,” Cahill said.  “Sometimes, we also have salads or yogurt on the trucks. We go out, and the children know when we are going to be there, and we have lunch.”

While the number of stops has grown, so has the number of students participating.

“I think we started our first year with 150 children per day,” Cahill said. “[Tuesday], we were almost at 200 kids, and that was only day two. We are hoping to get into the mid 200s from the Dowagiac area this year. Like 250 kids a day would be awesome.”

To encourage children’s literacy throughout the summer, a “Read Up” component is also being added to the Meet Up, Eat Up program. Volunteers from United Way Southwest Michigan and Be Healthy Berrien will meet with the students, eat lunch with them and then read a book. “Read Up” will give children a chance to get excited about reading and storytelling.

“This is very positive situation for a lot of families,” Cahill said.

The program ends on Aug. 23, a week before students go back to school because of catering needs and other organizational tasks, Cahill said.

Dowagiac Union School’s mobile food trucks visit the following locations Monday through Friday until Aug. 23:

• 11 to 11:30 a.m. — Twin Lakes Park, Lakeshore Road, Dowagiac

• 11 to 11:30 a.m. — Riverside Apartments, 550 Riverside Dr., Dowagiac

• 11:45 a.m. to 12:24 p.m. — Sister Lakes Community Church, 67119 M-152

• 11:30 to noon — Dowagiac District Library, 211 Commercial St.

• Noon to 12:30 p.m. — Water Tower Park, Helena St.

• 12:30 to 1 p.m. — Indian Hills Apartments, 400 Cleveland St.

• 12:30 to 1 p.m. — Justus Gage Playground, 301 James St., Dowagiac

• 1 to 1:30 p.m. — HS Auto Shop, 701 N. Lowe St.

• 1 to 1:30 p.m. —ACTION Pantry, 301 Main St.

• 1:30 to 2 p.m. — Eagle’s Wood Apartments, 29509 Amerihost Dr.

• 1:30 to 2 p.m. — Vineyard Place Apartments, 508 Vineyard Place Dr.

• 2 to 2:30 p.m. — Walter Ward Park, 309 Thickstun

There will be no program on July 4 due to the holiday.