Lunches begin Tuesday

“Let’s Feed Our Children,” a free lunch program for needy kids and others in Sterling, Rock Falls and Tampico, returns Tuesday.

The program provides one sack lunch to anyone who shows up, every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday throughout the 11 weeks of summer vacation. Anyone is eligible, no questions asked.

■ In Sterling, lunches will be served from 11:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. at St. Mary Catholic Church Parish Center, 600 Ave. B, and the Salvation Army, 409 Avenue F.; from noon until 1 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 501 Broadway, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 1701 16th Ave., and Macedonia Baptist Church, 1313 Woodburn Ave.

■ Volunteers in a car with a “Let’s Feed Our Children” sign also distribute lunches, at the Steelton subdivision on West, Oak, Elm, Ash and East avenues and West Ninth Street, at Douglas Park, at the intersection of Chestnut Avenue and Lynn Boulevard, and at Ster-Lynn Apartments, 215 E. 25th St.

■ In Rock Falls, lunch will be served from noon to 1 p.m. at Rock Falls United Methodist Church, 210 Fourth Ave., and the Coloma Homes Community Room.

■ Mobile sites are Country Acres subdivision on Prophet Road, in Yeowardsville east of Rock Falls, and at Easy Livin mobile home park, 1507 W. state Route 30.

■ In Tampico, lunch will be available from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Tampico Community Building.

Let’s Feed Our Children is sponsored by the United Way of Whiteside County with the help of numerous community partners, including 28 area churches and Sterling Township.

It was launched in 2001, after Northwestern Steel and Wire closed, to help low-income families make it through the summer. About 27,000 lunches were served last year.

Volunteers are expecting to serve about the same or a little more than last year, said Marsha Dimond, an administrative assistant at the United Way.