Basin schools prepare for summer meals
CALEB PEREZ | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 11 months, 1 week AGO
COLUMBIA BASIN — Schools around the Columbia Basin will have food service programs available at no charge for children 18 years of age and younger over the course of the summer.
Ephrata
“We are going to be offering both congregate meals and non-congregate meals,” said Alain Black, Ephrata School District’s food services director. “One of our schools will have congregate meals where children have to eat on-site.”
The on-site meals will be available at Grant Elementary with breakfast served from 8 to 9 a.m. and lunch from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. There will also be a grab-and-go meal option which will be distributed in a drive-thru line at Ephrata Middle School from noon to 1 p.m.
Both sites will be open Monday-Thursday from June 16 to July 24. The program will be closed for distribution June 19 in observance of Juneteenth, but grab-and-go boxes for that day will be available for pickup June 18.
For further questions, contact Ephrata School District and Alain Black at 509-754-2474.
Moses Lake
This summer Moses Lake School District is partnering with the City of Moses Lake Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department to provide free lunches at select parks across the city. The program runs from June 16 through July 18 with no service June 19 or July 4.
“All meals are free for children and teens ages 18 and under – no sign-up or registration is required. Just stop by, grab lunch, and enjoy summer in the park,” said Ryan Shannon, MLSD Director of Public Relations.
A sack lunch will be served 12-12:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday. Meals will be served at Knolls Vista Park Mondays, Carpenter Park Tuesdays, Maple Grove Park Wednesdays and Peninsula Park Thursdays.
For further information contact the Moses Lake School District at 509-766-2650 or Ryan Shannon at (509-793-7734.
Othello
Othello School District will provide their summer meals alongside the summer school program June 30 to July 25. Summer school at Scootney Springs Elementary for grades K-8 will be from 8:10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and Grades 9-12 will be at Desert Oasis High School with a morning session from 8:45 to 11:30 a.m. and a night session from noon to 2:45 p.m.
“We will serve meals to the public where we will serve breakfast and lunch,” said Mandy McDonald, assistant director of dining services at Othello School District.
Breakfast and lunch will be provided to the public for children aged 1-18. Food will be served at Scootney Springs Elementary School on the summer school program’s schedule.
For further questions on Othello School District’s summer meal services contact Mandy McDonald at 509-488-2650 ext. 2031.
Quincy
Quincy School District’s Summer Food Service Program will be available starting June 23 at Sit and Eat locations and offer a twice a week meal pick-up location.
Sit-and-eat locations will be at Ancient Lakes Elementary operating Monday-Thursday with breakfast served 7:15-8 a.m. and lunch 11:15 a.m-noon through July 17. The other sit-and-eat location will be the Quincy City Parks and Recreation Building Monday-Friday through Aug. 8 with the exception of July 4. Breakfast will be 7:30-8 a.m. and lunch 11:30 a.m. -12:15 p.m.
The twice-a-week pickup locations will be at George Elementary with drive-thru and cafeteria pickup and Quincy Middle School, with drive-thru pickup only. These will begin operation June 24 and run through Aug. 8 with breakfast and lunch served 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Additional meals will be distributed July 1 and July 3 to make up for no service July 4.
For any questions, contact Quincy School District Food Service Director Steven DeStio at 509-787-4335 ext. 3680.
Wahluke
Wahluke will distribute its summer meals June 23-July 27 at Saddle Mountain Elementary School. These will be served Monday-Thursday 11 a.m.-11:30 p.m.
“Any child under the age of 18, if they’re hungry, they can come in any of those days,” said James Montgomery, Wahluke’s food service representative. “They don’t even need to be a student; just come in and we’ll feed you.”
Wahluke School District is extending its offer to students from Royal and other nearby school districts that are not offering a summer meal program this year.
For further information call James Montgomery at 503-752-0280 or the Wahluke School District office at 509-932-4565.
Warden
Warden School District will be serving their summer meals at the Warden School District’s cafeteria from June 24 through July 31 with breakfast served from 7:50 to 8:20 a.m. and lunch from 10:55 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
“Anyone 18 and under can come get a free meal. They don’t have to be enrolled in summer school, they can come eat,” said Paulie Wixom, Warden School District food service supervisor. “Not everybody gets a hot lunch, we have free meals and they’re more than welcome to come up.
Paulie Wixom can be reached at 509-349-2366 ext. 1450 for any further questions on the summer meal programs at Warden School District.
ARTICLES BY CALEB PEREZ
BBCC eyes budget and spring enrollment
MOSES LAKE — During Big Bend Community College’s April 30 board meeting the college President, Sarah Thompson Tweedy, shared the counts for spring enrollment and Full Time Enrollment numbers for Spring of 2026 along with updates on where the budget sits. “We still have some work to do in terms of systematically going through our expenses and seeing how much of the requests that we have before us, how many of those we can put off,” said Thompson Tweedy. “There’s the opportunity to close that gap by reducing our expenses, but the challenge is, we’ve also had some expenses go up.” As of April 15, 2026 the spring quarter head count was up nearly 18% from 2025, but total FTE’s and state-funded FTEs were down 6.9% and 11.6% respectively, according to the board agenda.
Huskies best Tigers in OT
Othello moves on to second round of districts
OTHELLO — The Othello Huskies (11-5) extended their postseason push after earning a close 2-1 victory in overtime against the Ephrata Tigers (7-10) in the first round of the 2A district tournament. The game winning goal came in second overtime when Othello sophomore Samuel Marroquin knocked the ball into the back of the net. “It was a tough game, Ephrata is definitely a tough opponent, but I feel like we had prepared well for the week,” said Marroquin. “We definitely had a good game plan and we just gave everything. We knew if this was our last game we were going to go out with a bang.” The game was a tight battle from the very beginning as the Tigers and Huskies battled under the hot sun. Othello scored in the first half and maintained their lead in throughout, going into halftime 1-0.
BASIN SPORTS SCHEDULE: May 4-11, 2026
COLUMBIA BASIN — The postseason has begun for high school athletes in our area with teams gearing up to compete against the best of the best. Check out where our local teams are heading this week.