East Ridge High, YMCA Offering Summer Meal Program

In conjunction with the YMCA, East Ridge High School will be offering breakfast and lunch this summer to anyone in the community under the age of 18, officials said.

The meals will be served from 8 to 9 a.m. and from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday, throughout the summer months while school is not in session. The meals will not be served the week of the July 4th holiday.

Tim James, the football coach for ERHS, said players from the team will be assisting in the effort.

“(The team) is doing this as a continuation of our outreach program,” James said. “It’s a good way to give back to the community.”

All four schools in East Ridge participate in the USDA’s National School Lunch Program, which offers children free or reduced prices on lunches based on family income, officials said.

Officials said there are only a few rules to the program. Those wishing to take part will eat inside the school’s cafeteria, which can accommodate 220 people at a time. There will be no take-out meals allowed.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.