Club now offering dinner

Laurie Hulburt serves mashed potatoes during dinner at Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line Friday evening.

For many of the children at the Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line, membership can be about more than having a place to go or activities to join. It can be about having food to eat.

As more kids have spent more time at the club, the club has spent more time taking care of them, with nutritional offerings growing from snacks to dinner.

The club started providing snacks to children in the afternoons, fruits and vegetables, several years ago.

Also, as the club's summer program became a fundamental part of many children's summer days, the club started providing lunch for members on summer afternoons.

Last Friday evening, the club expanded its food offerings again, with its first dinner for member children.

The club will be offering food to the children who are still at the club at 5:30 p. m.

Most of these offerings are made possible by the Child and Adult Care Food Program, which is funded by the USDA, with those funds managed by the Montana Department of Public Health & Human Services' Early Childhood Services Bureau.

All of these services are more challenging than may be expected, given the current facilities and staff available in the building, but a recent $75,000 grant from Maytag, including a big, new refrigerator delivered last week, will play a key part in a building-wide overhaul that will add on a commercial kitchen, which will include dishwashing facilities and ovens.