The Greater Love Deliverance Center Church in Walden is proud to announce their new free summer lunch program for the first year ever.

Beginning this Wednesday, July 5, the church will orchestrate a free lunch program for school students living in Montgomery and its three villages. The first week will be July 5, 6 and 7 from noon to 2 p.m. After that, it’ll be on Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon to 2 p.m.

Bishop Troy Johnson has been working on getting the program together.

“We’re gonna have sandwiches, juice, water, chips and things of that nature. Also we’re gonna have games for them, [like] air hockey, ping pong, cornhole and chess,” said Bishop Troy Johnson, who mentioned that on the occurrence there is inclement weather, the activities will move inside.

Bishop Johnson got the idea for the program after hearing that local schools were canceling their summer programs.

“I was informed that the Valley Central High School and Middle School were canceling their summer program. For some of the kids in the community, that’s their only meal,” said Bishop Johnson. However, he did mention that those kids would be sent to Berea instead. “Even though they couldn’t do it at that site, they dispersed the kids to Berea, [but] by that time I’d already set in motion what we were going to do.”

To help fund the program, Bishop Johnson has submitted letters to Hannaford, Shoprite, the Walden Rotary Club and more, in hopes for donations.

As of last Friday, he hasn’t gotten responses.

“I haven’t heard any responses as of yet. If we don’t hear anything, we’re going to go into our pockets with whatever we can find and we’re gonna try to make it happen from there,” said Bishop Johnson.

Because it’s the first year, Bishop Johnson isn’t sure what kind of turnout they will get, so they’re starting with just the first month.

“This is our first year doing it. We were just going to do July; however, if we pick up traction, I’m sure we will be continuing through August. As of now, it’s just for the month of July, and again, we’re praying that it picks up traction so we can continue to serve the community,” Bishop Johnson mentioned.

The church is located at 175 South Montgomery Street. If interested, contact Bishop Troy Johnson at (845) 313-3122 for information.