Summer and sandwiches just naturally go together.

And, sandwiches are the order of the day for the 2009 Summer Food Service Program in Troy.

The city of Troy is, once again, sponsoring the Summer Food Service Program for children ages 1 to 18, and 742 children are being served.

And it’s not too late for others to take advantage of the opportunity for a free sack lunch each weekday through July 16.

Martha Thrasher, coordinator of the program, said the purpose of the Summer Food Service Program is to offer nutritious sack lunches to all children, regardless of race, color, age, sex, disability or natural origin.

“We can serve more children and want to do so,” Thrasher said. “All of our sites are open sites, which means that the children can just show up at one of the Summer Food Service Program sites and be served. They don’t have to register. However, we do ask that the children stick with one site and not go to one site one day and to another on another day.”

The Summer Food Service Program is a federally funded program that is administered by the state. The city of Troy is the sponsor and the program workers are employees of the city school system.

The lunches are put together at Troy Elementary School by five kitchen workers with Joyce Curry as kitchen manager.

Each sack lunch contains a cold meat sandwich — ham, turkey or bologna (all also with cheese) — and one piece of fruit, which right now is either an apple or an orange. When plums, nectarines and peaches are in season, they will be included in the sack lunches. A four-ounce fruit juice and an eight-ounce carton of chocolate milk are also included in the sack lunches.

There is a site monitor at each of the 19 sites to keep a count of the number served and report it back to Thrasher and her staff so that arrangements can be made for the following day.

The Summer Food Service Program site at the Katherine Williams Center at 222 Montgomery Street has the fewest number of participants, and Thrasher said she would like to see those numbers increase.

“We want parents who have children from ages one to 18 to know about the program that is available to them and encourage them to take advantage of it,” Thrasher said.

Other sites of the Summer Food Service Program are Bethel Baptist Church, Church of God in Christ, Charles Henderson High School, Knox Street Center, Meeksville Fire Station, Murphree Park, Outreach Endtime Deliverance Church, Springhill Housing Projects, Washington Park, Christian Life Church, Mt. Nebo Baptist Church, Pocosin Baptist Church, Brantley Pentecostal Church of Christ and Dozier Housing Projects Community Center, Lily Baptist Church. First Missionary Baptist Church and Antioch Missionary Baptist Church were temporary sites.

For more information, call Martha Thrasher at 566-5770 ext. 4008 or 566-1444.