Suffolk’s Salvation Army did what quite a few organizations did this summer – offer a summer feeding program.

But what the Salvation Army did was so much different. Rather than just providing a lunch for the kids, they provided a place to build relationships with the other children and the staff.

This is the first time since their Kid’s Café that they tried out a new summer feeding program for young people. This time they were only the site for the program, not the sponsor.

Salvation Army partnered with Cover 3 Foundation to provide the meals for the children. Cover 3 is a non-profit that provides meals for kids that otherwise might go hungry.

Meals were provided to children 18 and under from noon to 1 p.m. at the Salvation Army location, 400 Bank St. two days a week.

While they had large expectations for the summer, ordering 40 meals, they only needed barely 20 to supply enough for the children that showed up.

This gave them the opportunity to cultivate relationships with each of the kids, and now they have some of them regularly coming to the Salvation Army facility just to say hello, play basketball or hang out.

It was much more than meals for these kids. It was a way to avoid getting into some trouble and having a role model like Capt. Johnny Anthony.

Anthony sometimes finds it difficult to get work done some days because he has kids coming by to chat and lend a helping hand when he is in his office, but it’s obvious that he doesn’t mind the distraction.

Hopefully, these bonds can continue and grow not just at the Salvation Army, but in every place that offers a summer meal program.

Having to go get food because it isn’t at home can be embarrassing, but in the right environment, it can give a child the chance to grow as a person.

The Salvation Army is working hard to do that, and they are working even harder to make sure they can do this all again next summer.