By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – The Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit in Alabaster will be offering local children more than just a free meal each day this summer, the church recently announced.

On June 6, the church, which is off Kent Dairy Road in Alabaster, began serving as one of the Alabaster City School System’s summer feeding program sites.

Through the ACS summer feeding program, kids 18 and younger eat for free, and adults can eat breakfast for $2 and lunch for $4. The program is funded through a federal grant.

The Church of the Holy Spirit is one of several sites for the program this summer, and recently secured a $2,000 grant from the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama to purchase small backpacks and children’s books to offer to kids who participate in the summer feeding program.

“We are really excited about it,” said Church of the Holy Spirit Rev. Mary Bea Sullivan. “Our desire is to connect in meaningful ways and provide interesting summer reading for kids of all ages.”

Sullivan said the church has responded positively to serving as a site for the summer feeding program, and already has four volunteers signed up to help with the program each weekday throughout the month of June.

“Before we even started, all of the slots for June were filled. We are very grateful for that,” Sullivan said.

The church volunteers have also transformed the church’s choir room into a library for the children who participate in the summer feeding program.

Kids who come to the church will be able to pick out two to three of their favorite books, and will take them home in a small backpack. After reading their three books, the kids will then have the option to trade them in for new books, Sullivan said.

“We will have them available all summer until we run out,” Sullivan said.