Some Memphis schools are serving an early dinner to students who attend the after-school program, reports the Commercial Appeal.  For now, dinner is a sandwich and salad, but soon schools will serve a hot meal in the afternoon.

At 2:30 in the afternoon, it’s been four hours since lunch, and Will Adams, 11, needs more than a snack to get through his day, which ends at 6 p.m. when after-care closes.

. . . “With a snack, I’d go home hungry,” said Will. “With supper, I go home full.

 The federal government now subsidizes breakfast, lunch (it’s over by 10:30?) and dinner (served at 2:30?).  Schools and community groups get$2.77 per dinner plus 22 cents in federal commodities to cover food costs and labor. If at least half the school’s students qualify for a subsidized lunch, everyone gets a free dinner, no questions asked.

For “a lot” of students , “there is this enormous gap between lunch and breakfast the next day,” said Tony Geraci, who runs the Memphis schools’ nutrition program. “Our goal is to fill the gap.”

Are there really “a lot” of parents who don’t feed their children a single meal at home? And why can’t Memphis serve lunch at lunch time?