Free pasta dinner at Children's Lunchbox tonight

WASILLA — The community is invited to enjoy a free pasta dinner tonight at an open house celebration for the Children's Lunchbox at 6 p.m. at the Boys and Girls Club, 3700 E. Bogard Rd., in Wasilla.

After feeding hungry Anchorage children for the past 13 years, Children's Lunchbox, a part of the nonprofit Bean’s Café in Anchorage, has expanded to serve children 18 and under in the Mat-Su Valley, Director Lynette Ortolano said.

The program began feeding Mat-Su Valley children at the Boys and Girls Club in December 2011, she said. Now that its kitchen is complete, three meals a day will be prepared onsite and delivered from there to other sites, such as Denali Family Services.

“We will be feeding hungry children at the Boys & Girls club a free healthy meal every weekday all year long,” Ortolano said.

By serving meals at the Boys and Girls Club, Ortolano said, they can capitalize on the fact that 11 schools bus kids to the club already.

“I live in the Valley. I’m a CASA volunteer. I’ve seen the need increase and I felt a personal responsibility to extend the program,” Ortolano said.

For now, breakfast, lunch and dinner will be served at the Boys and Girls Club and delivered to one remote location.

USDA provides partial funding for the program and the rest is funded through donations, she said.

Children who use the meals program also are required to volunteer to help prepare and serve meals, Ortolano said. That helps teach kids to cook, plan meals and about proper portions, she said.

“If there is a hungry kid, we feed them,” she said.

For more information, contact (907) 297-5625 or thechildrenslunchbox@alaska.net.

Contact managing editor Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.