School is out for summer, but without school lunches, it's tough for some children to get their hands on healthy meals.
Charlotte county students rushing to grab a healthy bite to eat when 'Champs On Wheels' rolls into their neighborhood.
"That really does play in the back of your mind that something fun and exciting is there," said Terri Whitacre, the food and nutrition director for the Charlotte County school district.
Students and parents alike are giving their stamp of approval.
"We have a dietician that makes sure everything is well-balanced in our menus. We also try to find foods that kids really like so we can couple what's good for them and what they really like," said Whitacre.
She says the school board got the idea from watching how other districts from around the sunshine state found ways to get their outreach programs to work.
The idea of outfitting a school bus won out. The school board just had to save up the money to make it happen.
"Besides the goosebumps it brings us all to tears that we put this together and that we are feeding kids over the summer that might not have had a healthy lunch," she said.
The 'Champs on Wheels' program currently visits the Hampton Point and Seven Palms apartment complexes in Punta Gorda, but Whitacre's goal is to expand to more areas in the future.
