Johnson STEAM Academy meal site opens Thursday

CEDAR RAPIDS — A meal site at Johnson STEAM Academy opens Thursday to expand food access for households affected by the recent closure of the First Avenue Hy-Vee.

The program at Johnson STEAM Academy, 355 18th St. SE, Cedar Rapids, will serve free breakfast from 8-9 a.m. and lunch from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Monday through Friday beginning July 18.

Johnson STEAM Academy is an elementary school in the Cedar Rapids Community School District.

Anyone in the community is eligible to receive free breakfast and lunch no matter their age. The program will run through Aug. 16.

The meal site is in collaboration between area state and local government officials, the Cedar Rapids Community School District and the Linn County Board of Supervisors, which allocated $10,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars toward the meal program earlier this week.

The First Avenue NE Hy-Vee closed June 30. The West Des Moines-based grocer’s departure left no grocery store in the area within a mile and a half, creating a food desert.

The meal site program at Johnson STEAM Academy is intended to fill a need, especially in the Mound View and Wellington Heights neighborhoods.

Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com