The city may have cut back the number of locations for its free summer food for kids program, but thanks to donation happy Walmart, it's taking the program to the road. That's right, thanks to a quarter-million dollar donation from the big-box retailer this summer, the city's Summer Meals program is adding two refrigerated trucks to the mix, so as to bring food to tykes in Orchard Beach, Flushing Meadows Park and Randalls Island.
Over the summer the city gives out free food, no questions asked, to children under 18 in 372 locations (it also offers food, registration required, at another 700+ locations across town). The program has been around for more than 30 years and serves roughly seven million meals each summer. But this is the first year that Walmart has been involved in the program and comes as the retailer is making another concerted effort to buy its way into the city, despite heated opposition. Since 2007 the company "has contributed more than $13 million to community groups in the five boroughs" and on Tuesday it announced a $4 million donation to fund nearly 15 percent of the city's summer youth-jobs program.
