Food for thought: This summer, Oakland libraries are serving free lunches to children, five days a week - ContraCostaTimes.com

Food for thought: This summer, Oakland libraries are serving free lunches to children, five days a week - ContraCostaTimes.com:

Food for thought: This summer, Oakland libraries are serving free lunches to children, five days a week

By Katy Murphy Oakland Tribune

Posted:   08/03/2012 12:05:53 PM PDT

Updated:   08/03/2012 02:05:44 PM PDT

 

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Oakland Public Libraries free lunch program

Erika Ozuna, right, and her brother Hector, 1, receive a free lunch from volunteers Adrienne Carter, her mom Diane Carter, both of Oakland, and Cynthia Naton, left to right, at the Cesar E. Chavez Branch of the Oakland Public Library in the Fruitvale District of Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2012. (Jane Tyska/Staff)

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OAKLAND -- This summer marked a first for library branch manager Peter Villasenor: Not a single child has asked him for lunch money.

They no longer need to. From Monday to Friday, children eat for free at 10 of the Oakland Public Library's branches, from Eastmont to Temescal, through a unique partnership between the Oakland Public Library, the city and the Alameda County Food Bank.

On Wednesday, Villasenor sat at one of the small tables in the children's section of the Cesar Chavez branch in East Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood -- a bustling, cheery place decorated with elaborate masks and colorful garlands of papel picado.

"The library's evolving with the times," Villasenor said. "If we have the space here and we have the volunteers, why not