By SCOTT D. JOHNSTON

The Green Lantern Lunch Program, the North Coast’s all-volunteer effort that has delivered more than 60,000 free lunches to hundreds of area students and their families since 2015, continues to grow, both in the numbers helped and in community support.

Phyllis Shaughnessy, the Copalis Beach great-grandmother who started the program, said volunteers are currently packing and delivering “over 900 lunches each weekend,” to needy North Coast families. That adds up to around 4,000 since the start of this year.

The program’s purpose is getting lunches to the “80 percent of the kids in the North Beach School district (who) qualify for free and reduced lunches during the school year,” Shaughnessy explained on the group’s website, www.greenlanternlunches.org. “When school gets out on Fridays, and for the summer, many kids are unsure where their next meal will come from,” she said. Last summer, around 30 volunteers worked together to bring just over 25,000 lunches to 429 students and their families.

Shaughnessy said that, lately, the program has “had some real special things happen, one of them being the volunteers from Seabrook,” with two rotating people (sometimes more) who come every Thursday to help pack the lunches. She noted that Seabrook “has supported the program with monetary donations as well as people help. We really appreciate their involvement!”

Since school resumed last September, the weekend lunch packs have been distributed via four routes, to the Pacific Beach area, to Humptulips, to Ocean Shores, and to Copalis Beach, Ocean City, and the Copalis Crossing area.

She knows the number will go up again in the summer, and they plan to modify their method this year by delivering on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with a two-day supply each day.

“Another special thing that happened (last) month,” Shaughnessy said, came from the dental office of Dr. Marc Tomlinson in Aberdeen, where they collected donations all month long.

“We were so happy to get the food, blankets, and assorted items that people gave to help us take care of the kids. They also donated tooth friendly products that we have sorted out and will be putting in the bags for the kids.”

Looking forward, she said the program will be working with the Ocean Shores/North Beach Chamber of Commerce on an effort to set up participation from merchants in Ocean Shores. She also commended Dave Crosby from Humptulips Grocery “for his amazing fundraisers for the program,” an annual auction and dinner. “We also appreciate the Green Lantern Pub for all of the assistance,” she added.

“As I have said since this program began, it takes community unity to make anything work, and we had seen this happen.”